Five more people arrested for Bali bombing

Five more people arrested for Bali bombing

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian police have arrested five more people suspected
of being linked to the deadly Bali bomb blasts.

The latest arrests were made in the Malimping area of Lebak,
Banten province, and bring the total number of people arrested in
the nationwide manhunt to 20, a senior police officer said on
Thursday.

The five were arrested on Wednesday morning for being in
possession of an automatic rifle, magazine and 17 rounds of 7.6
mm ammunition, said Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang, the Indonesian
Police spokesman.

They were named as Solihin, Jaya bin Junaidi, Achmad Supriyadi
bin Uwin, Ade bin Aridan and Syarif bin Juleh.

According to Aritonang, the five were arrested following
police investigations and surveillance in Malimping, where Iqbal,
an alleged lieutenant of Imam Samudra and the reported suicide
bomber of Paddy's Cafe, had once lived with his family.

Samudra has confessed to being the principal planner of the
Bali bombing in October, which killed almost 200 people.

As police were expanding their probe in the area, they
received a tip-off from locals that one of the five arrested men
possessed a rifle, said Aritonang.

Following the tip-off, the police investigators intensified
their searches, and finally they found the rifle in a house
belonging to Achmad Supriyadi.

Based on what Achmad told them, the police later arrested the
four other men on suspicion of also having something to do with
the rifle, bullets and the magazine, said Aritonang.

Aritonang said the police were still investigating links
between the five arrested men and Samudra and Iqbal, and the
roles, if any, that the five played in the Bali bomb blasts.

Regarding the development of the Samudra investigation,
Aritonang said that the police investigators focused their
questioning on Thursday on Samudra's role in a series of bombings
that took place in Jakarta over the past few years.

The police were also questioning Samudra over the role of Abu
Bakar Ba'asyir in a plot to assassinate then vice president
Megawati Soekarnoputri and the Christmas bombings in 2000.

"Samudra is being questioned as a witness in the Ba'asyir
case," said Aritonang, adding that Samudra had admitted that he
knew Ba'asyir.

During police interrogation last week, Samudra said that he
had known Ba'asyir when they both had lived in Malaysia.

Regarding the elusive Hambali, Samudra also admitted that he
knew him, as well as Abdullah Sungkar, both of whom are alleged
to be leaders of the outlawed Jama'ah Islamiyah terrorist group,
from the internet.

However, police were still investigating whether the three had
collaborated over the Bali bombings, said Aritonang.

On the setting up of teams to investigate the Bali bombings by
a number of organizations, including the Indonesian Ulemas
Council (MUI), Aritonang said that the police were pleased with
the development.

"However, the formal authority to investigate the case rests
solely in the hands of the Indonesian Police, as is provided for
in the Criminal Procedures Code (KUHAP)," said Aritonang.

As to the preliminary interrogation of Samudra between the
time of his arrest on Thursday last week and Tuesday, Aritonang
said that Samudra's statements would not included in the case
file as the suspect had not been accompanied by a lawyer at the
time.

Samudra was accompanied by lawyers for the first time on
Wednesday, and the formal, recorded investigation would start
from them.

"He'll be questioned again over the Bali bombing, and it's the
information he gives us then that will be included in the case
file," he said.

Separately in Bali, local non-governmental organizations (NGO)
staged a protest at Bali Police Headquarters, where one of prime
suspects in the bombings, Amrozy, is being held, to demand that
Amrozy be tried in Bali.

More than 100 protesters, mainly from an organization styling
itself the People's Representative Council (DPM), also demanded
that the culprits in the Bali bomb blasts be punished to the full
extent of the law.

I Wayan Widana told the provincial police chief, Insp. Gen.
Budi Setyawan, that the demand was based on the Criminal
Procedures Code, which required that a suspect in a criminal case
had to be prosecuted in the city where the crime was committed.