Alleged terrorist-linked activist arrested over ID deception
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
National Police investigators have arrested Abdul Wahid Kadungga, an activist with alleged links to terrorists, for providing false information about his citizenship in order to obtain an Indonesian identity card, an official said on Monday.
National Police detectives chief Comr. Gen. M.A. Erwin Mappaseng said Kadungga had been charged with violating Article 263 of the Criminal Code on document falsification. The article carries a maximum penalty of six years in prison.
"He was arrested for ID fraud because, according to the immigration data, he entered Indonesia in 1999 with a Dutch passport. But he now holds an ID card issued in Tangerang, Banten," Mappaseng said, while denying that the arrest was connected to Kadungga's alleged links with international terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda.
East Kalimantan Police previously detained and questioned Kadungga for two days over his possible connections with the Oct. 12 bombings in Bali and the bombings on Dec. 4 in Makassar, South Sulawesi.
Police released him last Friday, a controversial decision that led to some public debate, before the suspect was redetained.
"We have yet to link him with other cases. But we will work on every possibility," Mappaseng said.
Kadungga, 62, is reportedly the son-in-law of a Muslim leader who was slain in 1965. He fled the country in the early 1980s during the iron rule of president Soeharto, who repressed all movements considered anti-Pancasila.
A report issued by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) says that Kadungga supported Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Baasyir, a suspect in a string of domestic bombings, when he fled Indonesia in 1985 for Malaysia.
The police have accused Baasyir of being the spiritual leader of Jamaah Islamiyah, a regional terrorist network.
ICG said Kadungga "was believed to have had direct links with al-Qaeda through his ties to the Egyptian-led Gama Islami".
Suara Hidayatullah, an Indonesian Islamic magazine, quoted Kandungga as saying in its October 2000 edition that he had met Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and agreed with bin Laden's vow to wage a jihad or holy war against the United States. Bin Laden is wanted by the U.S. government for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.
Gama Islami is made up of a core group from bin Laden's al- Qaeda network, according to the ICG.
The ICG also said Kadungga was associated with the Makassar- based Committee for Upholding Islamic Law. Another person linked to the committee, Agus Dwikarna, is serving a lengthy prison sentence in the Philippines for possessing explosives.