Police claim strong case on Bali blasts

I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali

The police have refuted public skepticism about their investigation into the deadly Oct. 12 Bali blasts, saying they have strong evidence, sufficient to take all suspects in the incidents to court.

Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang, spokesman for the joint inquiry team, told The Jakarta Post on Thursday that the team, through its careful detective work, had acquired the necessary evidence to support the indictment against all the suspects, including five others who are still at large.

"Despite the government regulation in lieu of law on terrorism allowing the police to arrest suspects without preliminary evidence, we arrested the suspects on the basis of evidence and collected more after interrogating them.

"The formal evidence is based on witness accounts, while material evidence comprises the relevant physical evidence. I assure the public that the team currently possesses adequate formal and material evidence," he said.

Aritonang gave the interview in response to media reports criticizing the police for using only physical evidence as the basis for determining which of the suspects committed the blasts at Paddy's Cafe, Sari Club and Renon respectively.

There is no obligation on the police to present the physical evidence to the public "but we have good reason not to disclose it for the time being until the suspects stand trial," he said.

The investigators delayed on Thursday presentation of the physical evidence before prosecutors as part of the preparation of the suspects' dossiers.

"Investigators have collected a lot of evidence at the blast sites. Besides, we also found more evidence when we visited the locations where the suspects obtained the explosive materials, assembled them and finally carried out the bombings," he said.

Asked on the type of explosives used in the powerful blasts in Sari Club and Paddy's, Aritonang said the team had available foreign experts to identify them, "and I don't have the specialized knowledge to discuss the explosives in detail."

A reliable investigator, who wished to remain anonymous, disclosed that collection of the physical evidence had become a decisive factor in the progress the team had achieved in its inquiries.

"At the initial stages of the investigation all we had was the remains of the Mitsubishi L-300 minivan and a Yamaha F1-ZR motorbike, tainted with explosive residue similar to that found at the blast sites," the source said.

The investigators managed to identify the registration number of the minivan used to transport the explosives to two buildings in Kuta, identify the suspects and traced the suspects' hiding places.

"In our preliminary interrogation, the main suspect, Amrozi, repeatedly denied that he had been to Bali. We searched his house and found a number of receipts for fuel purchases made at several gas stations in Probolinggo, Banyuwangi and Denpasar. We confronted him with the receipts, after which he had no choice but to confess that he indeed had once traveled to Denpasar," said the source.

The source also stressed that besides the vehicle remains and gas station receipts, the investigators also collected a variety of other physical evidence, such as phone records and a receipt for the purchase of a prepaid cellular phone card.

Meanwhile, Aritonang also said that the team had assigned at least three investigators to prepare the legal dossiers on the suspects. They were expected to begin their work on Friday.

Another development in the case was that Mukhlas, also known as Ali Gufron, allegedly Jamaah Islamiyah's regional coordinator, had formally appointed the Muslim Lawyers Team (TPM) as his legal advisers. The TPM for Mukhlas would be led by Adnan Wirawan and comprise thirteen lawyers.

"Mukhlas is in a good state. He asked us only to take his children, who are currently staying with a friend in Klaten, Central Java, to Solokuro, Tenggulun, Lamongan, East Java, where they will be taken care of by his older brothers, Ustadz Khozin and Ja'far Sodik," team member M. Sya'af said.

According to Sya'af, Mukhlas had two sons and three daughters aged from five to eleven years. His wife Farida was still in police custody.