Chaidar's testimony 'useless'

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Police have gathered no new leads after interviewing Darul Islam (DI) spokesman Al Chaidar, as he failed to provide evidence supporting his statements regarding the group's involvement in several bombings, a senior police officer said on Friday.

"Al Chaidar, thus far, has provided no information which could be useful to police investigations as he did not offer new evidence or witnesses," Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam said.

The police summoned Al Chaidar for questioning on Friday to explain statements made to the media last Saturday claiming three Darul Islam factions were responsible for the recent bombing of Petra Church in North Jakarta and a grenade explosion at the Australian International School (AIS) in South Jakarta.

Darul Islam is a former separatist group based in West Java that fought to establish a Muslim state in the 1950s.

Anton said Al Chaidar stammered when police posed several questions regarding how much he knew about the bomb attacks.

He said Al Chaidar might become a suspect should certain parties consider his statement to be defamatory.

During questioning, Al Chaidar admitted that he knew nothing either about the suspects of the bombing at Petra Church or the AIS, nor did he know any basic details about the incidents.

"I just made a "post-factum" analysis over the bomb attacks which led to the possible involvement of three DI factions," Chaidar said after his six-hour interview.

He identified the three factions as Abu Jendal, Abu Haris and one other group. He said his allegation was only based on talks with DI members at the DI office on Jl. Batu in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta.

Chaidar also requested police protection, saying that he had received threats to his safety. He did not provide specific details regarding the threats.