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.