This Article is From Dec 16, 2013

Indonesian man 'robbed graves for black-magic flying spell'

Indonesian man 'robbed graves for black-magic flying spell'

Resi Rokhis Suhana, 27, (in red t-shirt) being escorted by plain clothed police officers at a police station in Cilacap.

Cilicap: An Indonesian man has admitted stealing human remains from graves to use in black-magic spells he believed would give him the power of flight and invisibility, police said Monday.

Police detained Resi Rokhis Suhana, 27, in the south of the main island of Java on Sunday, following reports that bones were stolen from graves, including those of twin babies.

He was arrested in a banana plantation in Cilacap district in possession of bones, ripped white shrouds of the type used in Muslim burials, women's underwear and a sickle, police said.

"In preliminary questioning, he admitted robbing the graves to perfect a magical power called 'Ultimate Magical Knight'," said local police chief Andry Triaspoetra.

Following his arrest, Suhana was admitted to hospital to evaluate his mental health.

Some still believe in black magic in Muslim-majority Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of more than 17,000 islands inhabited by a kaleidoscope of different peoples.

In 2003, a man was arrested for eating the flesh of a freshly buried old woman in what he believed was part of a ritual to make him invincible.

The justice ministry earlier this year proposed banning "black magic" that causes death or suffering, an offence which would carry a five-year prison sentence.

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