Police to release 20 JSX bombing suspects

JAKARTA (JP): Twenty of the 30 people detained over the bombing of the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) building will be released soon, an officer said on Thursday.

Jakarta Police deputy chief Brig. Gen. Makbul Padmanegara told a news conference that the 20 men would be released by Friday.

However, Makbul said the men would not be freed from the initial charges against them since they were still suspects in two bombing cases.

"They will be released only because they meet the criteria to have their detention suspended," Makbul said, referring to an official request submitted by their lawyers from the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI).

Makbul, however, did not disclose the names of the 20 suspects.

A police document, which could not be confirmed as official, revealed that the men had been charged for failing to report a crime immediately to the police.

National Police criminal investigation deputy head Brig. Gen. Ansyaad Mbai said at the media conference that four of the 36 suspects were prime suspects in bombing cases.

Two of them, Ansyaad said, identified as Tengku Ismuhadi and Ibrahim A. Manaf, acted as the planners and controllers of the Sept. 13 JSX bomb attack.

Aceh Police deputy chief Brig. Gen. Hasikin, who is also a member of the investigative team, identified the two others as military officers Ibrahim Hasan and Irwan.

The two, he said, were operators who assembled and planted the bomb at the JSX building, which later killed 11 people, injured dozens and damaged some 200 vehicles.

Hasikin told the news briefing that Ibrahim A. Manaf had admitted that the group was funded by someone called Armea, a treasurer of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) for the Pidie and Pasei areas in northern Aceh.

He added that the suspects had obtained the money by selling oil palms, logs and mugging people.

"Armea's superior is a man named Zakaria and Zakaria's superior is GAM minister Malek Mahmud, who lives overseas and sits on the humanitarian pause (committee)," Hasikin said without mentioning the name of the country.

In the same conference, National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Saleh Saaf denied allegations that the police had handled the case carelessly and did not have any evidence when making the arrests.

"We have been conducting the investigation in accordance with the law and we have not fabricated any evidence," Saleh said.

PBHI earlier voiced suspicion that the arrests had not been backed by adequate evidence and that the police had tried to frame suspects using fabricated evidence.

"Police forensics found similar explosive materials in the workshop and at the JSX building," Saleh said, referring to Krung Baro Motor auto repair shop in Ciganjur, South Jakarta, where the police arrested 22 men, including workshop owner Ismuhadi, on Sept. 23.

Saleh also said the police found at the workshop a bomb timer and carpet fiber similar to those found at the JSX building.

Saleh said the police investigation had proved the alleged role of GAM in the JSX bombing.

None of the officers at the meeting revealed the progress of the police investigation of the grenade explosion at the Malaysian Embassy here which police earlier claimed was committed by the same group.

Ansyaad said the suspects of the JSX bomb attack were members of a group that had a wide network and which had carried out several bombings in many areas in the country. He added that it was also the group's job to buy firearms and ammunition to be brought into Aceh.

"They are terrorists who are threatening the country's security," Ansyaad said.

In probing the bombing cases, the joint team is working with their counterparts in at least 14 provinces across the country. (jaw)