Police to release photos of 10 suspects
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Denpasar/Makassar
Police investigating the Bali bombing that killed nearly 200 people and injured some 300 others, said on Thursday that they would soon make public the identities of 10 suspects, including Imam Samudra, who has been blamed for masterminding the deadly Oct. 12 blast.
"We will release all the details of the suspects on Sunday, including their backgrounds and photographs, and put them on the wanted list so the public can help us capture them," said Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang, spokesman for the multinational team hunting down the bombers.
He said the 10 suspects were all Indonesians and were "possibly still hiding somewhere in the country", adding that the probe so far had been focused on Indonesia itself.
"But we have also sent personnel in collaboration with Interpol to a number of other countries that, according to Amrozi, he has visited," Aritonang said.
More than one month after the explosion, police investigators have only Amrozi in custody. Amrozi admitted planning the attack on the resort island but denied assembling the huge bomb.
During a meeting with National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar on Wednesday, Amrozi, 40, named Imam Samudra as one of the masterminds of the blast.
Aritonang insisted that Samudra played a central role in planning and executing the bombings. "He is a 38-year-old from West Java, and an engineer," Aritonang told The Jakarta Post in Denpasar, Bali, without elaborating further.
Reports had earlier said Samudra was born in Bogor, West Java. He lived for a long time in Malaysia, where he married a Malaysian wife.
It remains unclear, however, whether Samudra, known under several aliases as Kudama, Fatih, Abdul Aziz and Abu Umar, has bomb-making expertise or not.
Samudra has been on the police wanted list for his alleged involvement in the Christmas bombings across Indonesia in 2000. His name also came up during the police investigation into military training being conducted in Pandeglang, West Java, two years ago.
Samudra, along with Hambali, a suspected member of Jama'ah Islamiyah (JI), has also been implicated in the Atrium explosion in Jakarta in 2001.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda has branded Samudra and Hambali as members of JI, a regional organization the United Nations recently put on its list of terrorist groups.
Meanwhile, People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) speaker Amien Rais called on Thursday for a reconstruction of the bombing operation in Bali so as to dispel any controversy over the arrest of Amrozi.
"As an ordinary person, I hope everything will be carried out transparently and that all discrepancies are avoided. I therefore suggest that the best possible solution would be for Amrozi and his accomplices to reconstruct the bombing to verify whether they are capable of making such a horrifying bomb," Amien said.
If the suspects were proven to be capable of building a bomb similar to that which exploded in Bali, they must be sentenced to death, he said.
"If necessary, he (Amrozi) must be hanged directly or shot dead ... so that the problem can soon be settled," Amien added.
Amrozi visited Malaysia three times, initially to work as a laborer. It was there and back home that he fell under the influence of radical Islamic preachers, including elderly cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, according to investigators.
They say Amrozi's elder brother Mukhlas, also known as Ali Gufron, was the first man to steer him along the path of religious militancy.
But Aritonang said the police had so far no information that Mukhlas was involved in the bombing. "So far, we only see him as an idol and inspiration for Amrozi in religious matters."
Amrozi had also visited Singapore and Thailand. Da'i Bachtiar said Amrozi had also fought in Afghanistan against Russian troops.