Police say no terrorist link to Riau blast
Abdul Khalik, Jakarta
After five days of intensive investigations and the involvement of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the police announced on Saturday that the Pekanbaru blast was not a terrorist outrage but a purely criminal act.
The announcement came after police investigators declared three persons as suspects in the blast that killed two persons and seriously injured four others last Tuesday.
The three suspects were identified as Along, Along's brother- in-law Aliong, and another unidentified man who is still at large.
Riau police chief Brig. Gen. Deddy S. Komaruddin said on Saturday that the motive behind the blast was insurance fraud.
According to Deddy, Along had an outstanding debt of Rp 350 million to an unidentified third party. Irritated by repeated demands to pay the debts, Along and Aliong decided to destroy the goods stored in the shophouse, which were all insured.
"They have outstanding debts and thus came up with this scam, hoping that they would be able to claim for the goods on the insurance policy," Deddy was quoted by Antara as saying.
The two then hired a suspect identified as B, who is still at large, to destroy the goods. "They held meetings twice, once on Friday (April 30) at Aliong's house and the other on the night of the event at a certain place," Deddy said.
The suspect B, who was paid Rp 6 million for his part in the alleged scam, later asked Irwanto to carry out the act. "The money has been paid to the suspect (B)," the police said.
"Clearly the blast was not a terrorist act. It was purely a criminal act," Deddy said.
Along and Irwanto are still being treated at the Pekanbaru Police Hospital, while Aliong is in police custody.
However, several aspects of the case were still unclear, such as the explosives used in the bombing, which police previously identified as the high explosive RDX nitrate, the type usually used in terrorist attacks across the country since 2000. The police called in the FBI to help them determine the type of explosives used.
Another curious aspect was the fact that the bomb went off only a few hours before the Pekanbaru District Court began the trial of a man charged with the Christmas 2000 bombing of a Riau church.
Deddy said the police were still trying to positively identify the type of explosive used in the bombing.
"We need more time to examine the explosive and our team is still investigating where they got the explosive from," Deddy said.
Earlier, National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar left open the possibility that the bombing was connected with other bombings across the nation, such as the 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people, and the JW Marriott blast last year in Jakarta, which left 12 people dead.