First suspect in Marriott bombing stands trial
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Sardona Siliwangi, 23, a man linked to the JW Marriott Hotel bombing on Aug. 5 that killed 12 people and injured 147, went on trial in the Bengkulu District Court on Wednesday.
This marks the first trial of a suspect in connection with the hotel bombing in Jakarta.
Prosecutors Soediharjo and Zuhandi, who read out the 12-page indictment, laid multiple charges against Sardona, who hails from Bengkulu, Antara reported.
He is charged under Law No. 15/2003 on terrorism, the Criminal Code and Emergency law No. 12/1951 for his alleged role in helping the bombers store the explosives that were later used in the Marriott blast.
The prosecutors told the trial, which was presided over by judge Alzaman Sutopo, that Sardona stored the explosives, which were contained in six cardboards and which it is alleged belonged to Toni Togar alias Indra Warman, another defendant in the same terror attack.
Before being brought to Sardona's home, the explosives were kept in the home of another suspect, Suprapto, in Duri, Riau province,
The explosives were later moved on Feb. 9, 2003, to Bengkulu by suspects Dr Azahari, Noordin Mohammad Top, M. Rais and Asmar Latin Sani.
In Bengkulu, Asmar then brought the explosives to Sardona's house. By the end of last February, Sardona had been introduced by Asmar to Azahari and Noordin.
The prosecutors said Sardona agreed to join Azahari's group, but later withdrew, saying he had no time to participate in the group's activities.
Azahari and Noordin, both Malaysian citizens, are accused of organizing the Marriott bombing. They are currently being hunted by the National Police. The two managed to escape arrest earlier this month when police officers raided their rented house in Bandung, West Java.
The police have captured two other alleged accomplices of Azahari -- Thohir and Ismail -- who have also been charged in connection with the bombing.
Noordin was said to have invited Sardona to learn how to assemble a bomb, but he refused, arguing that he had no time to learn about bomb-making.
On April, 26, Asmar and another bombing suspect, M. Iksan alias Idris, retrieved the explosives from Sardona's home. The explosives were later used in the bomb that was later detonated at the Marriott Hotel.
In related development, Jakarta Police said on Wednesday they had submitted the case file on Mustofa, 42, alleged to be a senior figure in the regional Jamaah Islamiyah terror network, to the city prosecutor's office.
"We have completed his case file and we took Mustofa and his case file last Monday to the prosecutors," said Adj. Sr. Comr. Tito Karnavian, the of the Jakarta Police's security investigation unit.
"We charged him mainly with illegal possession of ammunition, firearms and explosives in Semarang (Central Java)," he said.
The explosives and ammunition, which included two FN pistols, 19,000 bullets, 65 PETNs (high explosive devices), more than 1,000 detonators, timers, firing devices, four boxes of TNT, 11 rockets for hand-held launchers, and 900 kilograms of potassium chlorate, were seized from a rented house on Jl. Sri Rejeki, Semarang.
"Mustofa is the owner," Tito said.
Mustofa alias Pranata Yuda, Abu Tholut and Imron, confessed to police investigators that he was a former head of JI's Mantiqi Thalid, a JI command unit overseeing South Sulawesi, Sabah and the Southern Philippines.
JI was blamed for the Marriott blast and the Bali bombings that killed 202 people on Oct. 12, 2002.