Teacher apprehended for alleged link with Azahari
Teacher apprehended for alleged link with Azahari
Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya
Police have disclosed that activist Adi Suryana has been arrested
and is undergoing questioning for his alleged link with wanted
terrorist suspect Azahari.
East Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Firman Gani said on Friday
that Adi was arrested by the antiterrorist team of the National
Police headquarters on Friday at dawn.
Police suspect Malaysian nationals Azahari and Nurdin M. Top
were the bomb makers in the Oct. 12, 2002 Bali bombing and the
Aug. 5 J.W. Marriott Hotel bombing last year in Jakarta.
The police are conducting a nation-wide hunt to arrest the two
terrorist suspects.
Adi was arrested when he was going to a mosque near his house
in Asemrowo, Surabaya, for the dawn prayer with his 10-year-old
son Humam Almahi.
Firman said that the National Police team, led by Sr. Comr.
Bekto Suprapto, had been conducting surveillance in the province
for two weeks before he finally arrested Adi.
"We are not clear about the role of Adi in relation to the two
terror suspects," the police chief said.
According to Adi's neighbor Fauzi Baraja, Adi teaches Koranic
recital classes and owns a stall in front of his house.
Firman said that Adi was ongoing questioning somewhere in
Surabaya.
In the fight against terrorism, Indonesian authorities have
arrested dozens of people for their alleged roles in a string of
terror attacks in the country since 2000.
Most of the terror suspects are alleged to have links with the
Jamaah Islamiyah, a terrorist network in the Southeast Asian
region.
Following the arrest of Adi, the East Java Muslim Solidarity
Alliance, announced its plan to file a pre-trial motion against
the police for possible misconduct during the arrest.
Alliance' lawyer Fahmi H. Bachmid said that the police should
have shown the warrant before forcefully taking Adi, who was on
his way to the mosque.
"We intend to file a pre-trial motion because we suspect there
was a violation in the arrest procedure. We consider this an
abduction as the police should have shown the warrant first,"
Fahmi said.