Palu police arrest another Makassar bomb suspect
Palu police arrest another Makassar bomb suspect
Andi Hasjramurni and Erick W., The Jakarta Post, Palu/Makassar
Police in the Central Sulawesi capital of Palu have arrested a
suspect in the Makassar bombings who has been on the run since
December last year.
The suspect, identified as Wirahadi alias Hadi, 21, was
apprehended on Thursday at his boarding house on Jl.
Sisimangaraja in East Palu district, chief of the provincial
police Brig. Gen. Taufiq Ridha on Friday.
With the arrest of Hadi, four suspects in the Dec. 5 blasts in
a McDonald's outlet and the NV. Hadji Kalla car dealership in the
South Sulawesi capital of Makassar remain at large. They include
the alleged mastermind, Agung Abdul Hamid.
"The suspect admitted during questioning that he was the one
who planted the bomb in the car showroom on the orders of Agung,"
Ridha said.
The blasts, which claimed three lives, were the first since
the bombings on Bali on Oct. 12, 2002, which killed 202 people,
mostly foreigners. Police said the two incidents were connected
to the Jamaah Islamiyah regional terror group, which operates in
Southeast Asia.
Hadi, a resident of Moengko subdistrict in the Central
Sulawesi town of Poso, went to Makassar along with another
suspect, Aco, after receiving some money from Agung, according to
Ridha.
The police chief said Hadi was also a suspect in a bomb attack
on a government office in Poso only four days before the Makassar
blasts.
It remained unclear whether the blast in Poso, an area that
had been rocked by almost three years of sectarian conflict prior
to a peace deal in December 2001, also involved Agung. No
fatalities resulted from the explosion.
Ridha said Hadi, who had been wanted by the provincial police
for the past few months, offered no resistance when detectives
raided his home. The police also seized a motorcycle, which they
suspected had been stolen by Hadi.
It was the motorcycle that actually led to Hadi's arrest,
according to Ridha. The bike had been reported missing by its
owner, who is a resident of Sausu subdistrict in Parigi Moutong
regency, Central Sulawesi.
The Palu police investigators discovered that Hadi was wanted
in connection with the bombings in Poso and Makassar.
"He admitted to playing a role in the Makassar and Poso
bombings, but he denied the theft accusation," Ridha said.
Police have named a total 24 suspects as being involved in the
Makassar bombings.
They sent on Friday five suspects and their case files to the
state prosecutor's office in the city.
The five men, identified as Ilham Riyadi, Suriadi, Suryadi
Mas'ud, Haerul and Muhammad Tang, alias Ittang, were handed over
by chief detective Adj Sr. Comr. Effendy Napitupulu to Hamzah
Tadja, the assistant to the chief prosecutor of general crime
affairs.
On Thursday the police transferred eight suspects, as well as
evidence, such as chemical materials, machetes and a motorcycle,
to the prosecutor's office.
The trial is expected to start at the end of this month.