Bali Police submit Amrozi's dossier to prosecutors, getting closer to trial

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.