Police yet to name Atrium bomb suspect

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Jakarta Police have yet to confirm whether Abdullah Yassin, who has admitted that he had full knowledge about a bombing in a shopping mall in Senen, Central Jakarta two years ago, is indeed a suspect.

"We don't know whether he is the one who was named by Ramli, one of the bombing suspects," said Sr. Comr. Mathius Salempang.

Jakarta Police are working with police in Pidie regency in Aceh province, who said on Saturday that they had arrested Yasin, after establishing his identity and his connection to the bombing.

According to police records made available to The Jakarta Post, Ramli and Aznani -- the wife of Tengku Ismuhadi, an Acehnese jailed for life for the JSX bombing in 2000 -- have been named suspects in the bombing on Sept. 23, 2001 at the Atrium Senen parking lot. The car bomb caused no injuries nor fatalities, but damaged eight cars parked around the blast site. The police alleged that the Free Aceh Movement was behind the bombing.

The Pidie Police announced on Saturday that they had arrested Yassin, 34, in Gigieng village, Pidie.

"Our preliminary interrogation reveals that the bombing at the Atrium Senen occurred due to rivalry between marijuana mafia groups that supply marijuana to Jakarta from Aceh," said Pidie Police Chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Agus Salim.

Before the September bombing, the Atrium also experienced another bombing on Aug. 1, 2001 in the mall's lobby. The bomb ripped through the mall's lobby and injured six people, including Dany, a Malaysian who was assigned to plant the bomb.