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.