Bali bombs exploded prematurely, suspect says

Bali bombs exploded prematurely, suspect says

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali

Ali Imron, a suspect in last year's Bali blasts, told
investigators that the bombs used in the devastating attacks
exploded before they were supposed to, police said on Friday.

Spokesman for the police inquiry team Sr. Comr. Zainuri Lubis
said Imron claimed a bomb went off first near the United States
consulate in Denpasar's Renon district, triggered by a mobile
phone.

The blast was followed by the explosion of the other two bombs
for unclear reasons before the bombers were ready to detonate
them at Paddy's Cafe and the Sari Club on Jl. Legian in Bali's
Kuta tourist strip, Zainuri said, quoting Imron's confession.

"All (the bombers) were surprised because the three bombs
exploded almost simultaneously. When the Renon blast was set off
first with a cellular phone, why did the other two bombs also
explode almost simultaneously," he said referring to Imron's
confession.

Imron, a younger brother of two other key detained suspects,
Amrozi and Ali Ghufron alias Mukhlas, claimed the three bombs
were controlled with different cellular phones and should have
gone off at different times.

The suspect and Zainuri could not explain when the bombs were
supposed to have exploded as it was the other two suspects, Dul
Matin and Idris -- who remain at large -- who were allegedly
tasked with setting them off.

It was not clear whether the premature blasts caused the death
of another suspect at Paddy's, Iqbal, who was suspected of being
a suicide bomber in the Bali explosions.

Imron was the latest suspect to be arrested in connection with
the Oct. 12 blasts that killed over 190 people and injured some
300 others, mostly Westerners.

He was captured on the remote island of Barukang in East
Kalimantan province and flown to the Bali capital of Denpasar on
Thursday for questioning.

However, Imron's version of events contradicted what has been
revealed by the Australian Federal Police (AFP), who are
assisting with the Indonesian police investigation.

The AFP has said the Paddy's Cafe bomb went off first, at
about 11:15 pm local time, followed within 10 to 15 seconds by
the Sari Club blast, and then 45-60 seconds later by the Renon
blast, which caused no casualties.

Zainuri said Imron told the investigators that the main bomb
was made at a house in Bali and then put in something resembling
a filing cabinet inside the L-300 van which exploded outside the
Sari Club.

On Friday, 10 AFP officers along with their Indonesian
counterparts examined clothing and dust in a ground-floor unit in
the house which was rented by the alleged bombing mastermind,
Imam Samudra.

At the same house located on Jl. Pulau Pinang 18, Samudra led
a meeting with Idris, Dul Matin, Mukhlas, Amrozi, Imron, Mubarok
and Hambali before the bombers set off the bombs, Zainuri said.

He said Imron admitted that the bombs were made from chemicals
that Amrozi had bought at the Tidal chemical shop in the East
Java capital of Surabaya.

Imron said the suspected bombers had experimented by setting
off a small blast in the rented house.

The alleged driver of the L-300 van that carried the bomb-
making materials from his hometown of Lamongan in East Java to
Bali, Imron said he went to a nearby mosque to pray and felt
happy minutes after the bombs devastated the Sari Club and
Paddy's.

"According to Ali Imron's confession, as soon as he heard the
explosions he went directly to the al-Ghurobah mosque and
prayed," Zainuri said.

"When asked how he felt, he said he was happy," he added.

The bomb attacks on one of the world's most popular resort
islands have been blamed on Jamaah Islamiyah, a clandestine
terror network that has cells across Southeast Asia and is
believed to be linked to Osama bid Laden's al-Qaeda group.

However, the police say they have found no evidence of links
between the Bali bombers and al-Qaeda.

The first trials for the 17 detained suspects are expected to
start in February in Bali, police say. The defendants will likely
face death sentences under an antiterrorism regulation approved
last year by President Megawati Soekarnoputri.