Man claiming Bali bombing role declared sane: Police
I Wayan Juniartha and Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali
Suharyanto, a man who surrendered to police claiming that he became involuntarily involved in the deadly Oct. 12, 2002 Bali bombing, has been declared mentally stable by a psychiatrist, police announced here on Monday.
"The head of the Bali Police psychiatric unit has said that following observations and interviews, the said person is mentally stable," Bali Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Yatim Suyatmo said as quoted by Agence France-Presse.
He said a psychiatric assessment had been ordered for Suharyanto alias Muklas Ardi because it was rare for people to surrender voluntarily to police.
"Moreover, his testimony did not correlate with what other suspects have been saying," he added.
Suharyanto was sent for psychiatric assessment for a few hours on Saturday, one day after he arrived at the Bali Police headquarters from Klaten, Central Java.
He had given himself up to the Klaten Police last Wednesday, claiming he had carried explosives to Bali for the Oct. 12 bombing that killed more than 190 people.
Klaten is the town where Mukhlas, alias Ali Ghufron, one of the key suspects in the bombing, and several other suspects were arrested earlier this month.
But Suharyanto told police investigators he did not recognize the 15 people suspected of playing a role in the bomb attack.
Police have named Imam Samudra, who led the group of at least 15 suspected bombers, as the mastermind of the Bali blasts, which they linked to the regional Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist network.
Suharyanto's account has raised speculations that there may have been other plotters outside the Samudra-led group, who also had a role in the devastating bombing.
Suharyanto could not determine what explosives he claimed to have carried to Bali. Nor was he clear whether they included RDX, a high explosive, that was discovered at the blast site in Kuta, Bali.
Samudra and another suspect Amrozi told police they had used TNT to bomb Paddy's Cafe and Sari Club, denying any knowledge of RDX.
The police have been praised by many for achieving breakthroughs in investigating the Bali bombings, but others still doubt that suspects like Samudra and his accomplices were behind the huge plot.
Analysts and bomb experts have urged the investigators to find the sources of high explosives used for the Bali blasts so as to uncover the tragedy thoroughly.
Meanwhile, chief investigator Insp. Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika said on Monday the police would begin next week to submit at least six case files of the 15 detained bombing suspects to prosecutors to prepare formal charges.
Amrozi, who has been under arrest since Nov. 5, will be the first suspect whose case file is expected to be prepared for submission on Jan. 6, 2003, Pastika told a news conference at the Bali Police headquarters in Denpasar.
"I hope that starting from Jan. 6, we will be able to hand over at least one dossier per week to prosecutors. That's our target," Pastika said.
He said the case files of the four prime suspects -- Amrozi, Samudra, Mukhlas alias Ali Ghufron, and Hernianto -- would be filed separately.
The police were also preparing two dossiers for the other 11 suspects considered to have assisted the key four; Abdul Rauf alias Sam, Andi Hidayat alias Agus, Andri Oktavia alias Yudi, Junaedi alias Amin, Najib, Makmuri, Wibowo, Herlambang, Abdul Hamid, Saeful Suroso and Masykur Abdulkadir.
Pastika also said the investigators were waiting for the arrival of an Australian computer expert to team up with his Indonesian counterpart to open the laptop belonging to Imam Samudra.
"I want the laptop opened and examined as soon as possible. I have just asked Samudra's investigators to contact experts from Jakarta and Australia so they can come to Bali immediately," he said.
He could not say when the experts would arrive to open the laptop believed to contain data on Samudra's correspondence with his accomplices.