Police say no terrorist link to Riau blast

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.