Convicted Istiqlal bomber still in police custody

Convicted Istiqlal bomber still in police custody

JAKARTA (JP): Surya Setiawan, alias Wawan, the man sentenced
to three years and two months in prison for planting the bomb
which exploded at the Istiqlal Grand Mosque on April 19, has yet
to be transferred by the police to a public penitentiary.

The 26-year-old man has instead been held in police custody at
the Jakarta Police Headquarters in South Jakarta since the
Central Jakarta District Court found him guilty on Oct. 18.

A senior police officer, close to the investigation of the
case, confirmed this on Wednesday and said the decision not to
send Wawan to a penitentiary like other criminals was due to his
status as a "state prisoner".

"He's a state prisoner. It's fine if he is kept here in city
police detention.

"He's safe here. We're not quite sure about his security if he
has to be put somewhere else," the reliable officer, who asked
for anonymity, told The Jakarta Post.

"You cannot forget that he's a political prisoner.

"And nobody from his family has come to meet him in the past
seven months. Even if they did, we would discourage the meeting
since his life could be in danger."

"If he's shot, or if the person who visits him tried to
influence him in some way or other, he'd be finished.

"He's in a city police detention cell here for his own
safety."

The officer, however, could not explain on what grounds the
police are giving Wawan special treatment.

When asked to comment on this exceptional case, prominent
lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis urged the Jakarta Police to immediately
send Wawan to a public prison unless they wanted to get in
trouble with existing laws.

"Even if the prisoner is a state prisoner, I don't think
putting him in police detention is correct. There's no such
thing," Todung told the Post over the phone.

No reporters have been allowed to meet the prisoner, even
after his arrest following the blast on the ground floor of the
grand mosque.

Jakarta Police detectives usually invite the press to
interview recently arrested suspected criminals.

According to a former inmate at the detention center, Wawan's
cell is one of the most tightly secured.

Mastermind

A few days after the bombing, a former state official was
alleged by unconfirmed reports to have been the mastermind behind
the bombing, in an effort to ignite religious tension ahead of
the general election campaign in May.

Police reportedly kept the details of the case under wraps
because of their sensitive nature and their relation to
maneuverings among the political elite.

All seven suspects in the blast were reportedly staying at a
rented house in Ciledug, but were arrested in different places
starting on May 7.

No one was injured during the bombing at the grand mosque,
though the windows and doors of several offices on the ground
floor were damaged.

Jakarta Police chief Maj. Gen. Noegroho Djajoesman said
earlier in June that "Wawan, the oldest among them, was the one
who received the orders and directed his friends. He also was the
one who planted the bomb at the mosque."

Wawan was reportedly "abducted" by a group of unidentified
people in early April when he was at Gambir Train Station in
Central Jakarta.

He told police later he was terrorized for several days and
briefed on the plot of the bombing, before being sent back to the
railway station, Noegroho said.

"Wawan was a street musician before he was picked up by a
charity foundation in the Kebon Sirih area," Noegroho said,
referring to a district in Central Jakarta.

He declined to disclose the name of the social welfare
foundation, saying that police did not find any indications of
its involvement in the blast. The only connection was that all
the suspects were trained and educated at the foundation,
Noegroho said.

All of those arrested have claimed not to know who gave them
orders or the motives behind them. They also claimed that they
didn't know that the wooden box carried in a black bag, which
they placed in the mosque, contained a bomb.

"The orders were not given face to face but through notes, and
the seven obeyed the orders because they were intimidated and
threatened," Noegroho said.

Police said earlier that the powerful blast was from a potent
mixture of trinitrotoluene (TNT) and potassium chlorate (KCLO3).
It caused an estimated Rp 500 million damage to at least 21
Islamic organizations' offices. (ylt)