Police arrest eight over embassy bombing
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Surabaya/Madiun
The National Police announced on Thursday that they had arrested at least eight people allegedly linked to last week's deadly blast outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, which killed 10 people and injured over 180 others.
National Police chief of detectives Comr. Suyitno Landung Sudjono confirmed the arrests of only seven suspects in East Java, while a police source said another one was nabbed in Jakarta.
"This is part of our efforts to establish a link between terror suspects in West, Central and East Java. We hope we can capture both Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Moh. Top, once we trace their network," said Suyitno.
Azahari and Noordin, both Malaysian fugitives, were believed to have masterminded the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people and the 2003 JW Marriott Hotel attack, which claimed 12 lives.
Police said the two had recruited several new suicide bombers, including those who perpetrated the embassy bombing on Sept. 9, 2004. Now, the terror masterminds each have a Rp 1 billion bounty on their heads.
The same police source further said one man suspected of playing a role in the preparations of the embassy bombing was nabbed somewhere in North Jakarta and is being interrogated at the Jakarta Police headquarters.
The source and Suyitno said the police also arrested three people in Sidoarjo, three others in Madiun and two others in Magetan.
The police identified only three of the detained suspects as Rahmatullah, his wife Farida and Agung, who were all nabbed on Wednesday night in a rented house on Jl. Merak III in the Renwin area, Sidoarjo.
"Based on information obtained from Abu Fida, the three are part of Azahari's terror network," said East Java Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Endro Wardoyo.
Abu Fida alias Saefuddin, who was accused of having harbored Azahari and Noordin was arrested on Aug. 4 in Surabaya.
Endro said that Rahmatullah, Farida and Agung hosted a forum at their rented house for Azahari's new recruits to take an Islamic oath.
"They are being questioned as witnesses to help us in the investigations. We are now detaining them at Sidoarjo Police Station," Endro added.
However, he said three other suspected new recruits, identified only by their initials as SL, HM and AN, managed to evade police arrest by escaping in a dark Toyota Kijang van, adding that the three were about to take an oath at Rahmatullah's house.
Police officers found documents written in Arabic hidden in the well behind the rented house, Endro said. "We are still studying the documents."
The police said they were searching for another suspect identified as Gempur Budi Angkoro alias Jabir.
National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said Jabir and Hasan, believed to be among those newly recruited by Azahari and Nurdin, were the suicide bombers at the Australian Embassy blast.
Jabir, who is a cousin of Fathurachman Al Ghozi -- a convicted terrorist shot dead in the Philippines in October last year, had not returned to his home in Madiun, East Java, according to his mother Muslihatin.
She said the police had taken her blood to be matched with body parts found at the blast site.
Meanwhile, the owner of car showroom Wisma Ratu Mobil on Jl. Jati Makmur in Bekasi, West Java, Siswanto, and his employee Agus were questioned on Thursday at the Jakarta Police Headquarters in connection with the bombing.
The car dealer reportedly sold the white Daihatsu Zebra box van with chassis number 9032109 used in the blast to some unidentified buyers on Sept. 6, only three days before the tragedy.