Samudra not linked to Ba'asyir or Mukhlas: Lawyers
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
After being barred from sitting in on the questioning sessions, lawyers representing principle Bali bombing suspect Imam Samudra signed the interrogation reports of their client on Saturday, in which Samudra did not mention the suspected leaders of Jamaah Islamiyah (JI).
In the reports, according to the lawyers, Samudra did not mention other masterminds for the Bali bombing, other than himself. He also admitted to having carried out other bombings in other parts of Indonesia.
Lawyer Qadar Faisal said that Samudra did not link himself in the Bali case with bombing suspect Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, believed to be the spiritual leader of JI.
"In the case reports there is no link between my client and Ba'asyir. The content is basically the same with what the police said," Qadar said as quoted by detik.com news portal.
Ba'asyir is currently in detention at police headquarters in Jakarta for his alleged role in the Christmas bombings in 2000 and a reported assassination attempt of then Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputi.
Muklas, who is said to be a JI operational commander by the Indonesian police as well as the older brother of another suspect of the bombing, Amrozi, was also not mentioned in the reports.
The lawyer also noted that in the reports, Samudra's motive to conduct the deadly bombing was to take revenge for the Muslim's sufferings around the world.
The team of lawyers agreed to sign the interrogation reports after the police allowed them to accompany Samudra during the questioning on Saturday.
They had been barred from accompanying Samudra in the past few days.
Qadar further explained that so far the team of lawyers had signed six investigation reports, consisting of two for Samudra, and the rest belonging to Samudra's accomplices: Abdul Rauf, Andri Oktavia, Andi Hidayat and Junaedi.
The lawyers signed the reports just one day after an unidentified man shot at the Kijang van carrying three members of the Muslim Lawyers' Team (TPM), when they were heading to the police headquarters on Friday.
The three members of TPM in the car at the time, Made Rahman Marasabessy, Achmad Michdan and Qadar said the front window of the car was shot.
The Kijang was passing through Kuningan, South Jakarta at 6 a.m. when an unidentified person fired a shot at the right front window of the car, shattering the glass window.
"I am sure it was a gunshot but the bullet did not pass through the window," Rahman said, adding that they did not report the incident to the police.
"We consider the shooting as one of the risks of our job and we repaired the car soon after it happened," he remarked.