Swedish law enforcers question JSX bombers

P.C. Naommy The Jakarta Post Jakarta

Swedish prosecutors and police questioned on Saturday five Acehnese, including two convicted of the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) bombing in 2000, as part of their investigation into Free Aceh Movement (GAM) leader Hasan Tiro, who lives in exile in Sweden.

The Swedish law enforcers also heard the account of Cut Safrida, one of two women who walked free in January after being held hostage by GAM for seven months.

"I just told them my experience during the ordeal, nothing more," a tearful Safrida told the press at Cipinang Penitentiary in East Jakarta.

Safrida was the only person willing to speak about the questioning, which took the Swedish team seven hours.

During the questioning, the team was accompanied by three officials from the Office of the Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs, two officers from the Jakarta Police and an interpreter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The team is in Indonesia to gather information on Tiro and other GAM leaders with Swedish citizenship.

The three Acehnese prisoners questioned were Ibrahim Hasan and Ramli, who were brought from the Cirebon penitentiary in West Java, and Irwan from Nusa Kambangan penitentiary in Central Java.

Ibrahim, a former Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) soldier, was convicted for the JSX bombing and sentenced to life imprisonment, as was Irwan, a former Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) member.

Ramli, who deserted from the Aceh Military Command, was convicted of selling arms to the rebels and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Two former GAM members also questioned were Daelami, 30, who claimed to be the GAM governor of Takengon, and Maulidan, 46, a former guerrilla who once underwent military training in Libya. Both of them have left GAM and pledged allegiance to Indonesia.

Bambang Krisbanu, warden of Cipinang Penitentiary, said the men were questioned one by one and were divided into two groups in order to save time.

He said Daelami and Maulidan had arrived in Jakarta from Banda Aceh hours before the questioning, while Ibrahim, Ramli and Irwan arrived on Friday.

A source, however, said the last three prisoners had been in Jakarta for a week. He said Ibrahim and Ramli arrived from Cirebon on March 13 at 9:15 a.m. while Irwan arrived from Nusa Kambangan penitentiary on March 14.

The Swedish team and top officials from the Office of the Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs will hold a joint press conference on Sunday at 10 a.m.