Ali, Mubarok transferred to Bali

Ali, Mubarok transferred to Bali

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali

The police transferred Ali Imron, Mubarok and 13 other suspects
in the Oct. 12, 2003, Bali blasts to Bali on Thursday for further
interrogation.

The 15 suspects flew in on a chartered Merpati Fokker 28
airplane and arrived here at 8:55 p.m. local time.

Upon their arrival at Ngurah Rai International Airport in
Kuta, Ali Imron alias Ale and Mubarok, whose real name is Hutomo
Pamungkas, were directly escorted to the bomb site in the Legian
area to undergo a field interrogation while the remaining 13
suspects were brought to Bali Police Headquarters in the city.

The 13 suspects were Sirojul Munir, Firmansyah, Mujarot, Amin
Sukastopo, Sofyan, Ilham alias Dodi, Hamzah Baya alias Soleh,
Yunus, Puriyanto alias Pak De, Imam Santoso, Abdul Salam,
Sulastopo bin Kartowiharjo and Muhajir.

The field interrogation was conducted after the two underwent
several interrogations following their arrest in East Kalimantan
on Monday. All the suspects were arrested when they were hiding
in a hut on Tanjung Berukang Island off Samarinda, capital of
East Kalimantan, on their way to escape to East Malaysia.

Ali, who was declared a suspect for hiding numerous weapons
and ammunition, has confessed to interrogators that he brought
the explosives used for the blasts inside a L-300 pickup to
Denpasar. He also has bomb-making skills. Mubarok was suspected
of channeling funds to the other suspects as he was a treasurer
in Jamaah Islamiyah.

The deputy chief of the joint investigative team, Brig. Gen
Edy Danardi, said here on Thursday that the two main suspects,
Ali Imron and Mubarok, would be interrogated directly in Legian
in order to confirm their positions during the bomb blasts that
claimed almost 200 lives.

He said the team had Ali Imron reconstruct how and where he
put the bombs. The police also took him to other places including
his rented rooms on Jl. Gatot Subroto I and Jalan Malboro in the
city.

Earlier reports said Ali assembled the bombs in his rented
rooms a few days before the tragedy.

Edy said further the police would comprehensively question the
two suspects in order to find a series of important clues that
would lead to the final conclusions in the case.

Meanwhile, under heavy police guard, the other 13 suspects
were directly sent to Bali Police Headquarters to undergo medical
tests and a series of interrogations.

So far, the police have arrested 30 suspects in Denpasar, and
East and Central Java. They are still hunting nine others who
were believed to still be in Indonesia.

Three more suspects were arrested in Lamongan, Ali's hometown
in East Java, for the illegal possession of weapons, bullets and
chemical materials after the police questioned Ali Imron.

Ali is a younger brother of Amrozi and Mukhlas, the two main
suspects in the blasts.

A National Police spokesman meanwhile said the death toll from
the Bali bombing last October had risen to 193, although five of
the victims remain unidentified.

Sr. Comr. Zaenuri Lubis said as quoted by DPA that the
National Police forensic team, assisted by the Australian Federal
Police and the Denpasar-based Sanglah General Hospital, had been
able to positively identify only 188 of the victims of the two
bomb blasts that tore through the Sari Club and Paddy's pub on
the night of Oct. 12, killing mostly Western tourists.

Five other bodies remain unidentified, along with some 140
body parts that have been kept at Bali's Sanglah General
Hospital.

Another 350 people were injured in the attack, dubbed the
biggest since the terrorist attack on the United States on Sept.
11, 2001.