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.