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.