Ja'far released from detention, put under house arrest

JAKARTA (JP): The commander of the Laskar Jihad Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamm'ah, Ja'far Umar Thalib, smiled as he walked out of the National Police Headquarters on Tuesday afternoon after police declared that he was under house arrest.

"According to my detectives, Ja'far was very cooperative during the interrogations, and he has given us more than enough evidence for the case," National Police chief Gen. Surojo Bimantoro told reporters on Tuesday.

Police arrested Ja'far, the leader of the Muslim hardline group, on May 4 on charges of inciting hatred against a religion in the country and passing down a sentence applied in Islamic law, in which one of his men was stoned to death.

A National Police detective, who requested anonymity, said that if Ja'far tried to leave the capital or did anything remotely suspicious, he would be taken back into custody.

"We'll continue to watch him. If he makes any wrong moves, he'll be put back into detention. We are tired of the Laskar Jihad demonstrations. We believe that at this point, Ja'far will not try to run off somewhere," he said.

The detective, however, did not comment when he was asked about Ja'far's alleged role in worsening the communal conflicts in Maluku.

Official police data states that over two years of bloody communal violence in the Maluku provinces has resulted in almost total devastation for the more than 2 million people living in the territory.

About 8,000 people have been killed as a result.

Meanwhile, the South Jakarta District Court began on Tuesday the first hearing of a lawsuit filed by Ja'far, over his allegedly wrongful arrest by police detectives.

Ja'far's team of lawyers objected to the police arrest, stating that the police had made the mistake of using the Criminal Code as the legal basis for their arrest, whereas a police arrest is stipulated by the Criminal Code Procedures.

Ja'far's lawyer Eggy Sujana added that police arrested Ja'far in an "inhumane manner".

At the hearing, which was packed with members of the Laskar Jihad or Jihad Force, National Police lawyers admitted they had used the wrong legal basis, saying that they had made a "typing error, a technical mistake".

"We typed KUHP (Criminal Code) instead of KUHAP (Criminal Code Procedures). This mistake, however, was corrected in our arrest warrant, which referred to the Criminal Code Procedures as the legal basis of the arrest," police lawyer Soeyitno told the court, presided over by Judge Syamsul Ali.

Soeyitno added that the police were polite to Ja'far when he was arrested at Juanda Airport in Surabaya, East Java.

"We greeted him by saying, assalamualaikum, Pak Haji, and explained the arrest to him. We didn't commit any violations," Soeyitno said.

Judge Syamsul adjourned the hearing until Wednesday, to hear the response from Ja'far's lawyers.

After the hearing, Eggy said that police had been "ridiculous" to make the mistake.

He also said the arrest of his client was not only unlawful, but it was fully motivated by political interest. (ylt/02)