Bombing suspect arrested

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta

Police announced on Friday that investigators from Riau and North Sumatra Police had arrested the last key suspect in a Pekanbaru bombing, identified as Boy Sipahutar, after pursuing him for almost a month.

National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said after Friday prayers that Boy's capture would shed light on the origins of the high-explosive materials used in the bombing.

"We still believe that the motive was a purely criminal act motivated by an intention to make a fraudulent insurance claim. However, we are still trying to find out from Boy where he obtained the explosives," said Da'i.

A bomb blast that destroyed a shophouse, killing two people and injuring four others, rocked the Riau capital of Pekanbaru on May 4. The police announced subsequently that they had discovered residue of the high-explosive RDX nitrate shouldn't it be just "RDX"? at the blast site.

RDX nitrate was used in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people. A similar substance was also used in the JW Marriott Hotel bombing last year in Jakarta, which left 12 people dead.

However, after five days of intensive investigation and the involvement of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the police later announced the bombing was not a terrorist outrage but an insurance fraud.

They subsequently declared Irwanto, a critically ill man, Along, the owner of the shop, Aliong, Along's are these names all correct? brother-in-law, and Boy, who was then still on the run, suspects in the case.

Following interrogation of the suspects, police said that Along had an outstanding debt of Rp 350 million (about US$38,890) to an unidentified third party. Irritated by repeated demands to repay the debt, Along and Aliong decided to destroy the goods stored in the shophouse, which were all insured.

They then hired Boy to execute the plan. Both men hoped that the insurance claim could be used to repay the debt. The suspect, Boy, who was paid Rp 6 million for his part in the alleged scam, later asked Irwanto to carry out the act.

National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Suyitno Landung Sudjono said that all of the suspects were now being intensively interrogate by Riau Police.

"We hope that we can soon find out from where they got the explosives. If we can obtain this information we can close the case and submit their dossier to the prosecutor's office," said Suyitno.