Probe into Marriott blast to be completed

Probe into Marriott blast to be completed

SURABAYA: The investigation into suspected terrorists in the
Marriott hotel bombing was almost complete, National Police chief
Da'i Bachtiar said here on Sunday.

"The police have arrested several terrorist suspects,
including the latest one, Amran, who have helped put our
investigations on the right track," Da'i said during a elections
briefing at the East Java military command headquarters on
Saturday. More arrests would hopefully be made soon, he said.

The national police's anti-terror unit recently captured
Malaysian citizens Amran bin Mansur, alias Andi Saputra, and
Jafar, known followers of wanted terrorists Dr Azahari and Noor
Din Moh Top. The latter two were believed to be responsible for
the Marriott bombing last year. While other suspects had been
arrested and prosecuted, there were still a significant number
who remained at large, Da'i said.

Regarding security preparations for the legislative election
on April 5, Da'i said "nationally the elections are ready to be
carried out. There are no extraordinary problems to hamper the
implementation of the polls."

"Although some places in Aceh are still considered prone to
security problems, military forces have been stationed there to
assure the smooth implementation of the elections," he said.

A total of 20,000 personnel consisting of 8,000 police
officers, 2,000 soldiers and 10,000 civilians have been mobilized
for the event in East Java.

During the briefing, Da'i was accompanied by State Secretary
Bambang Kesowo, Home Affairs Minister Hari Sabarno, General
Elections Commission head Nazaruddin Syamsuddin, General
Elections Monitoring Committee boss Komarudin Hidayat, and
several high ranking army officials. -- JP