Azahari's brother get lesson in Jakarta red tape

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.