Azahari's brother get lesson in Jakarta red tape

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The police said on Monday they would not allow the brother of slain terrorist Azahari bin Husin to identify the latter's body unless he followed procedure.

National Police spokesperson Brig. Gen. Soenarko said that since Azahari, one of the most wanted terrorists in the Southeast Asian region, was a Malaysian citizen and had been involved in criminal activity here, there were certain bureaucratic requirements that foreign nationals had to follow to enable them to view a relative's body.

"He can't just show up at the hospital or seek permission directly from here (National Police Headquarters) because we don't deal with people, we deal with institutions," Soenarko told a press conference.

Azahari's younger brother, Bani Yamin bin Husin, arrived here on Sunday in the hope of identifying Azahari's body and arranging its repatriation.

If Bani wishes to see his brother's body, he must contact the Malaysian Embassy, which would then submit a request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to Soenarko.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs would then forward the request to Interpol, which in turn would contact the National Police.

"Even if he (Bani) completes all the requirements and follows the procedure to view his brother's body, he must wait for the police's forensic team to finish its job. He can't just knock on the hospital door," Soenarko said.

Bani could not be reached for comment.

Azahari, along with compatriot Noordin M. Top, has been accused of being behind a series of deadly bomb attacks in the country. The expert bombmaker was killed during a raid at his last hideout in the resort town of Batu, East Java, on Wednesday. Noordin escaped a police raid on the same day in Semarang, Central Java. The two, believed to key members of the regional terror network Jamaah Islamiyah, had been on the run for three years, and had managed to slip through the fingers of the police in previous raids, making the police a target of criticism and public ridicule.

An autopsy is being performed on Azahari's body at the Soekanto Police Hospital in Kramatjati, East Jakarta. According to the police, several forensic tests are still being conducted on the body.

Hospital director Brig. Gen. Aidy Rawas was quoted by detikcom news portal as saying that he had not received any request or permission for Azahari's brother to see the body.

He added that it would be up to the National Police Headquarters to decide whether the relatives could see and pick up the body.

Separately, National Police chief Gen. Sutanto said the police were still conducting DNA tests on Azahari's body.

"We're still doing the chemical part of the test, we hope it will be finished in several days," Sutanto said at the Mobile Brigade's anniversary celebration on Monday.

However, the tests would not be used to identify the body as identification had been completed through fingerprinting. The tests are part of the forensic process in the autopsy.