Bali Police submit Amrozi's dossier to prosecutors, getting closer to trial
Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali
Police investigating the Bali terror bombing presented the case file of key suspect Amrozi to state prosecutors on Monday, moving a step closer to trying a group of militants over the deadly attacks.
The three-volume, 1,632-page dossier was submitted by Bali deputy police chief Brig. Gen. Herman Hidayat to the deputy head of the Bali prosecutors' office, Wayan Pasek Suartha.
It was the first of six dossiers for 15 detained suspects of the Oct. 12 bombings to be submitted to prosecutors.
Amrozi's arrest on Nov. 5 was considered the first major breakthrough in the investigation into the bombings, the worst in Indonesia's history and the second worst in the world after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.
He was also the first suspect arrested in his hometown of Lamongan, East Java, for his role in the devastating blasts that killed more than 190 people and injured some 300 others, mostly Westerners, when the bombs tore through Paddy's Cafe and Sari Club in the tourist hub of Kuta, Bali.
Chief investigator Insp. Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika said separately on Monday that Amrozi's dossier contained around 200 statements by witnesses, but declined to elaborate further.
Police have said the 15 suspects would go on trial in the resort island as early as next month. If charged and found guilty under an antiterrorism regulation, they could face the death penalty.
"We have prepared four prosecutors to specifically study and handle the case file of Amrozi," Suartha told journalists after receiving the dossier. It would take a maximum of 14 days to study the case file, he added.
The four appointed prosecutors are Urip Tri Gunawan, Wayan Suwila, Erna Normawati and I Nyoman Dila. They are part of a group of 21 local prosecutors, chaired by Dila, which has been assembled to deal with the bombing suspects.
Attorney General M.A. Rahman has said he would send five prosecutors from Jakarta to assist their 21 colleagues in handling the Bali terrorist cases. However, Suartha said that the five prosecutors had not yet arrived in Bali.
Hidayat declined to comment after handing over the dossier on Amrozi. "My task is only to bring and present Amrozi's case file. So, it is not within my responsibility to provide you with any comments or statements," he told journalists.
Under the Criminal Code Procedures (Kuhap), if prosecutors are satisfied with the evidence provided in the file, they will prepare charges against the defendant to be presented in court.
Police say Amrozi has admitted to buying chemicals and a van to help make the bomb and then transport the explosives to Bali.
Amrozi is the brother of another detainee in the Bali investigation, Ali Gufron alias Mukhlas, who police and intelligence officers have named as the operations chief of Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), after its former leader, Riduan Isamuddin alias Hambali, went into hiding.
Police have linked JI with the Bali blasts and the latest bombings that killed three people in the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar on Dec. 5. The regional terror group is also believed to have been behind a series of Christmas Eve bombings across the country in 2000.
The investigators have declared Imam Samudra the mastermind of the savage Bali explosions, and are currently hunting down 11 more suspects, including two Malaysians, who are still at large.