Police say Martin Ngongo Bili arranged a hit on the orders of Ellis’s Indonesian wife, Noor, ‘starting from the strategy, finance and recruiting the killers’

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A man who allegedly organised the murder of an Australian businessman in Bali has been shot and arrested after months in hiding.



Martin Ngongo Bili was found in the house of a villager in Sumba, an island east of Bali, early on Tuesday, police said.



He was the last of eight suspects wanted for the alleged murder of Robert Ellis, 60, whose corpse was found in a Bali rice field in October.



Bali detective Pande Sugiarta said Bili was shot in the leg after a confrontation with officers. “He had fled into the jungle,” he said. “The terrain where we chased him was very difficult, lots of cliffs.

“He has spent the past ... months moving from house to house, in hiding.”



Police alleged Bili arranged the hit on Ellis on the orders of his Indonesian wife, Noor Ellis, “starting from the strategy, finance and recruiting the killers”.

Police on Saturday arrested another alleged accomplice in Sumba, Adolf Malo Rangga.



Rangga was allegedly paid almost $1,500 for his role, which police said included holding Ellis down while another man slit his throat in the kitchen of his Bali villa.



Rangga and Bili have been transferred to Bali.



The other six suspects are preparing to face trial in February on charges carrying the death penalty.



They include Noor Ellis, who allegedly paid more than $14,000 to “solve her problems”, the Ellises’ two maids, and the boyfriend of one of the maids.



Two other men – one accused of slashing Ellis’s throat – were arrested in November, also in Sumba.



They fought police with poison arrows and machetes before they were shot and arrested.