Main suspect in Bali blasts identified, police say
Main suspect in Bali blasts identified, police say
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Bali
National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said on Tuesday that
the police had identified the main perpetrator behind the Bali
bombings that killed almost 200 people, from a final sketch of
the suspect.
"Connections have been established between the evidence found
at the bomb site with evidence collected from other sources. All
the evidence points to someone who we have made a complete
composite drawing of," Da'i said.
Da'i said police were hunting down the suspect. He said one of
the three sketches produced by the police based on information
from witnesses was very similar to an original photo the police
had on file.
Da'i declined to reveal the suspect's whereabouts, but hinted
that he was staying outside Bali.
Meanwhile, the head of the joint inquiry team, Insp. Gen. I
Made Mangku Pastika, confirmed Da'i's statement that the police
had concluded that this person was a suspect.
"We are hunting this person down. He is Indonesian and he is
the main player (in the bombing) as well as the one who made the
bomb," Pastika said.
Pastika also said that the police had finished its preliminary
investigation of the crime scene and had interrogated all the
witnesses.
"Just wait for the new developments. Our analysis (of the data
gathered) is still under way," said Pastika.
Pastika is scheduled to brief the media on Wednesday on the
police's progress in the investigation.
Last week, the police brought dozens of witnesses back to the
blast site in Kuta on Friday to reconstruct the events leading up
to the attack.
A multinational team, comprising more than 100 officers from
Australia, the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Japan,
have joined the National Police in investigating the bombing.
Allegations have been directed at Jamaah Islamiyah, which is
believed to be a Southeast Asian ally of al-Qaeda, but no
suspects have been arrested.
Meanwhile, the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) center
managed to identify 14 more bodies, bringing the number of
identified victims to 100. The bodies of nine Australians, two
Britons, one German, one Swiss and one Danish were positively
identified.