Police question Tommy's escorts over bomb blast

JAKARTA (JP): South Jakarta police detectives have so far questioned 20 people, including nine bodyguards of former president Soeharto's son, Hutomo Mandala Putra, as witnesses in connection with last week's blast at the Attorney General's Office, an officer said on Wednesday.

Based on the preliminary investigation, all of the bodyguards, who are active police and military personnel, were freed from all possible charges, chief of the police's precinct detective unit Sr. Insp. Achmad Alwi said.

"We have examined their fingerprints and compared them with those found in the lavatory rooms (where the blast took place) and on the second bomb, which was not exploded," he told reporters.

The results of the investigation deemed that the nine bodyguards of Hutomo, better known as Tommy, could not be named as suspects in the case, he said.

"The other 11 witnesses were civilians, including five staff members at the Attorney General's Office," Achmad said.

The bomb blast occurred sometime after Tommy was questioned at the Office on Tuesday last week.

Tommy was questioned as a witness over the purchasing of 144 hectares of land in Citereup subdistrict, Bogor, West Java, for the establishment of the vast Sentul Circuit.

As usual, Tommy was escorted by several of his bodyguards, mostly dressed plainly with something seemingly hidden under their clothes.

It remains unclear whether the police and military bodyguards are members of the Presidential Guard or whether they are hired by Tommy from their respective forces.

Chief of the South Jakarta Police Sr. Supt. Edward Aritonang said the police have to question them since they were around the area when the blast took place in the afternoon.

"The 20 witnesses might have seen something or somebody suspicious during the blast," Edward said, adding that his men have so far made no significant progress in their probe.

The police, he said, were now concentrating on making a sketch of the suspect, which would be distributed to the public later.

"Based on the information given by witnesses, our men have been making a sketch of the suspect using a computer," Edward said.

According to officer Achmad, the sketch was mainly based on the information disclosed by two witnesses, who admitted to have seen a person driving a car that was parked at the compound.

Police believe that the car may have been used by the suspects to place the bomb at the office.

"However, one of the witnesses is still ill, making us unable to complete the sketch," Achmad said.

But officers did not give any information about the appearance of the person in the car, as described by the two witnesses.

The home-made bomb exploded in a bathroom in a building at the Office's compound on Tuesday and shocked the nation, which was already unhappy with the actions of the political elite and with the country's economy.

No fatalities were recorded but a day later, another explosive device, said to be a more powerful one, was found on the ceiling of the second floor bathroom of the same building. The second bomb was found in a location exactly above the previous blast.

The second bomb was marked with a distinctive Military-One (M- 1) code.(asa)