'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)