Police send teams to question Hambali
Police send teams to question Hambali
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The police have sent several investigators abroad in a bid to
collect information and, if possible, question terror suspect
Hambali who was captured in Thailand last week.
National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Zainuri Lubis confirmed
here on Wednesday that investigators had left the country but
declined to provide further details.
"What I can say is that they have left the country," he said.
National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar has said that police
needed to have direct access to question Hambali in connection
with a string of terror attacks, including the Aug. 5 bomb blast
at the JW Marriot Hotel in Jakarta that killed 12 people and
injured 149 others.
"Of course, we need to question him directly," he told
reporters.
It was not known where the investigators were headed or their
identities. Sources said that several teams, each led by a senior
detective, had departed for Thailand, the United States and
Malaysia respectively.
Hambali, 39, also known as Riduan Isamuddin, was arrested in
Thailand last week. The man believed to be an operative of Osama
bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network in Asia has been
reportedly under U.S. custody and is still undergoing intensive
interrogation at an undisclosed location in Thailand.
He was alleged to be the main architect of the Oct. 12, 2002
Bali blasts that killed 202 people, mostly Australians, and
injured more than 320 others. His Malaysian wife has reportedly
been detained by Malaysian authorities.
National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Erwin Mappaseng
confirmed the establishment of several investigative teams but
they were yet to depart, pending an order from the government and
information from the foreign ministry and the justice ministry.
"We don't know his whereabouts, but we are ready (to carry out
the interrogation)," he told reporters in his office, saying that
police had been exchanging information with ASEAN countries,
Australia, the U.S. and European countries.
In Surabaya, Gen. Da'i said he had been informed about the
arrest of five other people in Thailand, who were believed to
have links with Hambali.
"We want to know whether their activities in Thailand are
connected with terrorism in Indonesia," he said, adding that the
police needed to investigate records of telephone calls, e-mails
and any other forms of communication used by the suspects.
Da'i also asserted that the police would verify reports that
Hambali had transferred US$45,000 to a Malaysian identified as
Lili to conduct a series of bombings in Indonesia.
"This is the kind of information we expect to get," he
remarked.
Separately, Yunus Husein, the head of the Indonesian antimoney
laundering authority (PPATK), said the Thai Antimoney Laundering
Office (AMLO) had supplied him with the bank statement that
indicated the movement of funds involving Hambali.
"The AMLO managed to detect the money transferred by Hambali
to other suspects, which led to his arrest," he said, without
elaborating.