Police arrest eight over embassy bombing
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.