Militants arrested over possible link to Hotel blast

Militants arrested over possible link to Hotel blast

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Several militants -- alleged to have links with Asmar Latin Sani,
who is believed to be the bomber at the JW Marriott Hotel in
South Jakarta on Aug. 5 that killed 12 people and injured 147 --
have been arrested by police since the bombing.

"We are currently grilling some people but we don't have
sufficient evidence yet to link them to the Marriott bombing,"
said National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar on Thursday,
following a meeting with officials from publicly listed companies
at the Mid Plaza Hotel, Central Jakarta.

Also present to brief the businessmen were Coordinating
Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono and National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen.
Erwin Mappaseng.

"Some of those people were arrested while some others were
summoned after the bombing incident," Da'i said.

However, he refused to mention the number of those
arrested and where they were apprehended.

Police sources said that police were quizzing nine people
suspected of having knowledge about or involvement in last week's
bombing. Some of them were identified as a Malaysian named Muklis
and three Indonesians: Ridwan, Idrus and Ilham.

Most of the nine were arrested in Bengkulu province, where
Asmar was from, the sources said.

The sources said that those suspects were nabbed after police
observed the hotel's closed-circuit television which captured the
pictures of three alleged bombers: Asmar, Tohir and Ridwan.

The sources also said that Tohir's body was found at the bomb
site and has been claimed as an unidentified body.

Police have confirmed that Asmar was the one who drove the
1986 Toyota Kijang van full of explosives and jerrycans of
gasoline which blasted in the hotel's driveway near the Sailendra
Restaurant during the busy lunch hour.

Asmar's identity was confirmed after police conducted a DNA
test on a severed head, two palms and body parts found at the
scene.

The confirmation of his identity has led to a theory that the
terrorist group Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) was behind the attack in
the heart of Jakarta as police know that Asmar was also a member
of a squad led by Mustofa.

Mustofa, who was arrested last month, had testified to police
investigators that he was the former head of JI at the regional
level known as Mantiqi Thalid (III) which oversees Sulawesi,
Sabah and Mindanao. He also led a suicide squad.

Before the Marriott bombing, the fifth bombing in the capital
this year, police had arrested several alleged JI members in
Semarang and Magelang in Central Java, Bekasi and Jakarta in
early July. Asmar had reportedly managed to avoid the police
dragnet.

During the arrest, police also seized nearly one ton of
explosives, ammunition and firearms in a rented house in
Semarang.

JI, which has been listed by the United Nations as a terrorist
network, was reportedly behind the Bali bombings that occurred on
Oct. 12, 2002, in which 202 people were killed, mostly
foreigners.

Prosecutors demanded a 15-year prison sentence for Cleric Abu
Bakar Ba'asyir, who is believed to be the JI spiritual leader, on
charges of treason and immigration violations during a trial on
Tuesday at the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency building in
Central Jakarta.

Police have arrested at least 30 JI members nationwide since
last year. Some of them have stood trial.

One of them, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, was sentenced to death by
the Denpasar District Court last week for planning and executing
the bombing in the Kuta tourist district in Bali.

Da'i has promised to immediately announce to the public once
police find sufficient evidence that the men arrested on Thursday
were involved in the bombing.

He said a day earlier that the police were "putting under
surveillance people who may be part of the group suspected to
behind the terrorist strike".