Four arrested over Bali bomb, not yet suspects

Four arrested over Bali bomb, not yet suspects

Team, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The National Police announced on Tuesday the arrest of four men
in connection with the Bali bombing, but refrained from claiming
to have made significant progress in their probe into the fatal
blast.

The arrests were made in the North Sumatra town of Binjai,
Jakarta and unnamed towns in East Java, mostly based on their
facial resemblance to sketches of three suspects wanted for the
blast.

Head of the police's investigation team Insp. Gen. I Made
Mangku Pastika said the arrest of two people in East Java was a
result of days of searches conducted by his officers. The two who
are unidentified, are now being interrogated in Surabaya, the
capital of East Java.

"The report which reached me said one of the people looks like
one of the suspects whose composite sketches were disclosed to
the public. It's too premature, however, to name them suspects,"
Pastika told The Jakarta Post in Denpasar.

Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang, spokesman for the joint inquiry
team, revealed that the team had already interrogated nine people
whose facial features resembled the sketches.

But of the nine, none were considered suspects.

Earlier in the day, National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar
said police were questioning two men separately in the North
Sumatra capital of Medan (near Binjai) and Jakarta. Each was
nabbed by local police.

"We have not yet named them suspects, however," Da'i said on
the sidelines of a hearing with the House of Representatives
Commission II on legal and domestic affairs in Jakarta.

Last week East Nusa Tenggara police arrested a man resembling
one of the sketches in Flores, and flew him to Denpasar for
questioning. It turned out to be a false alarm.

Insp. Gen. Dewa Ketut Gde Astika, newly appointed chief of the
North Sumatra Police, said that his team had nabbed 27-year-old
Zulfan for using a fake ID to apply for a passport but his face
looked similar to one of three suspects whose sketches were
exposed by the joint inquiry team investigating the Bali bombing.

"We contacted the Bali team to interrogate the fake ID suspect
and so far we can say nothing because the interrogation is still
under way," he said after his swearing in ceremony at the
Provincial Police Headquarters in Tanjungmorawa, south of Medan,
capital of North Sumatra on Tuesday.

He added that the police had no hard evidence that the suspect
was linked with the Bali bombing.

He explained that Zulfan was arrested in Binjai, some 30
kilometers north of Medan on Monday.

Medan Police Chief Sr. Comr. Badrodin Haiti said Zulfan was
arrested after getting information from the local immigration
office which found his photo similar to one of the three sketches
exposed by the joint inquiry team.

Aritonang confirmed that his team had sent three members to
Medan to help the North Sumatra Police to interrogate Zulfan.

"We have just sent three investigators from the inquiry team
to North Sumatra to investigate the man," Aritonang said.

He also explained that forensic experts from the team had
confirmed that the vehicle used in the bombing of the Sari Club
was a Mitsubishi L-300 minivan with a 1.4 liter gasoline engine,
and it was most likely a 1982 model.

"We have not been able to determine the color of the van,
since it's outer structure was completely disintegrated," he
added.