'Holdup' by Moroccans denied

'Holdup' by Moroccans denied

JAKARTA (JP): The Moroccan embassy denied yesterday the
alleged role of five of its citizens in a robbery on the city's
well-known tourist street, Jl. Jaksa in Central Jakarta.

"They're clean and had been released already on Saturday,"
second secretary of the embassy, Atlassi, told The Jakarta Post
by telephone.

Quoting the city police spokesman, the Post reported on Sunday
that five Moroccans were apprehended on Friday evening while
trying to run from a plainclothes officer and an angry mob.

The officer and mob thought the five were members of an 11-
member group of foreigners who robbed an Italian tourist on the
street a day earlier, said spokesman Lt. Col. Iman Haryatna.

The Moroccans were then arrested and questioned at the City
Police Headquarters.

Iman said yesterday that the five men had been released late
Saturday after police found no evidence to suggest guilt.

The Italian tourist, identified as Morreno Casesio, who was
the victim of a holdup on Thursday, was unable to describe his
assailants and could not say whether the Moroccans were the
suspected criminals, Iman said.

"The Italian was not sure about the identities of the
perpetrators," he said. (bsr)