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.