Police to release 20 JSX bombing suspects

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)