Blast rocks Attorney General's Office
Blast rocks Attorney General's Office
JAKARTA (JP): An explosive devise exploded in a building in
the Attorney General's Office compound in South Jakarta on
Tuesday evening, causing minor damage but no casualties.
The blast came just an hour after prosecutors questioned
former president Soeharto's youngest son Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala
Putra in connection with his father's alleged involvement in
graft.
South Jakarta Police chief Sr. Supt. Edward Aritonang said the
police were examining the explosive and questioning three
witnesses, two of whom were taken to the police station for
further interrogation.
"We cannot tell you what caused the blast based on brief
observation. The fact is it came from the men's bathroom on the
ground floor," Aritonang told reporters at the scene of incident,
located about 100 meters from Attorney General Marzuki Darusman's
office.
Marzuki was in the compound when the incident took place at
about 6 p.m. but soon left his office for a function at the
United States Embassy to celebrate the country's Independence
Day.
Later, he said it was too early to speculate on the
possibility of a political motive behind the blast.
"However, I think it is necessary for extra security measures
in the compound," Marzuki told The Jakarta Post.
The explosion ruined the ground floor's bathroom, the glass
door next to it and the windows of the bathroom on the second and
third floors. It also shattered a part of the building's wall.
Some state prosecutors were in a meeting on the fifth floor at
the time, evaluating the trial of one defendant in the Bank Bali
case, Djoko S. Tjandra.
Rudi, a driver of provincial prosecutor Nurdin Rachman, said
he saw a man running through the shattered glass door toward the
main entrance of the building a moment after the blast rocked the
compound.
The man, later identified as Beni, claimed he was a driver of
PT Bahana and was urinating when a bang coming from the ceiling
startled him. A piece of the ceiling landed on his head before he
managed to run out.
"My clothes are all wet and my head is bruised," Beni, who
drove a white Peugeot with license number B 3 AE, told the media
minutes before the police arrived and took him and Rudi away for
questioning.
Juan Felix Tampubolon, who heads the Soeharto family's team of
lawyers, said Soeharto would face questioning on Thursday,
further "torture" for his 79-year-old client who he claims
suffered permanent brain damage after a mild stroke.
A shooting incident marked Tommy's questioning by House of
Representatives legislators in May. (bby)