Azahari's brother confirms brother's identity, remains to be

Azahari's brother confirms brother's identity, remains to be
buried in Malaysia

Eva C. Komandjaja
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The brother of slain terrorist Azahari bin Husin has confirmed
that the corpse shown to him by police was that of his brother,
and says he now plans to bring it back to Malaysia on Thursday
for burial.

Bani Yamin bin Husin, who arrived here on Sunday to identify
the body and make arrangements for its repatriation, came to the
Soekanto Police Hospital on Wednesday after obtaining permission
from National Police chief Gen. Sutanto.

He declined to speak to reporters.

"Since the brother has identified the body, there's no need to
conduct DNA tests," said National Police spokesman Brig. Gen.
Soenarko, who accompanied Bani when identifying Azahari's body.

Azahari and a local operative were killed last week during a
raid on his last hiding place in Batu, East Java. The bomb-maker,
together with his compatriot Noordin M. Top, has been accused of
masterminding a series of deadly bomb attacks around the country
over the past three years -- the latest of which was the Oct. 1
Bali bomb blasts that killed 23 people. Noordin remains at large
after he managed to escape a police raid in Semarang, Central
Java, last week.

The Malaysian national held a doctorate from a university in
Great Britain. He was also believed to be a key member of the al-
Qaeda-linked Jamaah Islamiyah.

The police have said that a fingerprinting test had proved
that one of those killed in the Batu raid was Azahari. But some
had previously demanded that the police also carry out a DNA test
to quell any doubts.

Accompanied by several police officers, representatives from
the Malaysian Embassy and members of the hospital's forensic
team, Bani visited the police hospital at around 2:10 p.m. and
immediately went to the pathology room where Azahari's corpse was
kept.

Soenarko said that Bani remained calm when his brother's
corpse was shown to him.

He also said that Bani had requested that Azahari's body
should be bathed and prayed over in accordance with Muslim
teaching before being sent back to Malaysia.

Soenarko added that both the police and Bani had agreed that
the body would be returned to Malaysia on Thursday afternoon.

The death of Azahari has dealt a severe blow to the morale of
militant terrorists in the country, but experts warn that the
terror threat will not necessarily diminish as other terrorists,
including Noordin and his followers, are still at large and could
still launch deadly new attacks in the near future, particularly
during the upcoming Christmas and New Year festivities.