Australian IT experts help in bomb case

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta Police have started to work hand-in-hand with experts on information technology from Australia to find out more on the links and sources of funding of the Cimanggis bombing group.

"The experts have just arrived; we started by opening some files on the notebook computer today," city police spokesman Sr. Comr. Prasetyo said on Monday.

He said that since the police seized the computer from the explosion site in Cimanggis, Depok, on March 21, they had yet to be able to open a single file on the computer as they were all protected. Therefore, he added, the police were in dire need of external assistance.

Police from Indonesia and Australia have been working closely together since the Bali bombings on Oct. 12, 2002, which claimed more than 200 lives, mostly those of Australian tourists.

The computer was seized as it belonged to Oman Rahman, a key suspect in the explosion that took place during a bomb-making training session.

Oman was strongly suspected as the organizer of the training, which had already taken place three times: twice in Cimanggis and once in Cijantung, East Jakarta. He had also written a letter to members of his family to avoid public places and not to vote.

The police also announced that they have released six people who have been interrogated intensively since their arrest on March 21. Thus far, the police have named nine people as suspects in the explosion.

The suspects -- Oman, Ferdiansyah, Syarif Hidayat, Agus Kusnianto, Kamaluddin, Septiono H. Widiantono, Ubaedah, Inggrid and Syamsu M. Arif -- have been accused of violating Article 9 of Law No. 15/2003 on terrorism. The article stipulates that anybody found guilty of the illegal possession of explosive materials may face the death penalty.