Suspected bomb plotter arrested

YOGYAKARTA: The local Legal Aid Institute has protested the arrest of a local resident the authorities suspect of involvement in the recent bomb-making plot in Jakarta.

Institute chief Budi Hartono said the arrest by Jakarta police officers on Jan. 31 of Rachmat Kustianto Basuki, alias Yosie, was a mistake.

"The police caught the wrong person," he said in a news conference here Monday.

Yosie's arrest is the latest in the investigation into a bomb blast in a low-cost apartment in Jakarta last month. On the day of the incident, the police arrested one injured suspect who could not flee the scene after the homemade bomb exploded prematurely.

Two others escaped from the apartment.

"Yosie was caught after the police claimed they found his identity card and motorbike driving license at the scene of the explosion," Siti Hari Kartini, one of Yosie's relatives, quoted Jakarta police detective Capt. Aris Munandar, in Yogyakarta Monday.

She said she believed Yosie was not involved in the bomb plot, added that the documents the police found were the ID card Yosie lost in Bandung in 1993 and the driving license he lost in Yogyakarta in 1995. (44)