Police mistakenly arrest Sultan's cousin

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In their desperate hunt for Hambali, the country's number one terror suspect, the police mistakenly arrested a man who they thought was the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) leader.

The arrest on Tuesday sparked both curiosity and fear among passengers aboard the Argo Lawu night express train, which runs between Surakarta and Jakarta.

But police soon realized their blunder when they discovered that their prisoner was a cousin of Yogyakarta sultan Hamengkubuwono X, Acun Hadiwidjojo.

In their early stage of investigation into the Bali bombing, police also made several false arrests.

Police said 45-year-old Acun closely resembled the JI leader, who is accused of being responsible for the Oct. 12 Bali bombing and a series of bomb attacks across the country since 2000. The royal family member was questioned for seven hours before he was released.

A witness told The Jakarta Post that the drama started with the train making an unscheduled stop in Karawang to allow a group of plainclothes police officers to board the train.

"The cops looked over every passenger. Police officers stood guard at each car exit during the search for Hambali," the witness said.

Acun's arrest reminded him of an action film, he said, with police firing at least three warning shots before the arrest was made at 3:30 a.m. on Tuesday in Bekasi, the eastern buffer zone of Jakarta.

Separately, Acun said that the police had insisted that he was Hambali even though he showed them his identity card.

"I told them the truth, but the investigators remained adamant that I was Hambali. When I showed them my identity card and other things that proved my identity, they still wouldn't accept it. They distrusted me because Hambali has a lot of false names," he said.

Chief of Yogyakarta Police detectives Comr. Richard M. Nainggolan said on Wednesday that the police arrested Acun after receiving information that Hambali had slipped out of Surakarta on the Argo Lawu train.

He said that he was called by Bekasi Police deputy chief Comr. Purwadi, and he verified Acun's identity.

"I told Purwadi, who is my old friend at the police academy, that Acun was indeed a relative of the Yogyakarta Sultanate," Richard told Antara.