Up to court to move bombing suspect: Noegroho
JAKARTA (JP): Jakarta Police chief Maj. Gen. Noegroho Djajoesman said on Wednesday the city police were not responsible for extending the detention period of convicted Istiqlal Grand Mosque bomber Surya Setiawan who is still under police custody.
He said the Central Jakarta District Court had yet to take Surya Setiawan, alias Wawan, out of police custody and put him in prison.
"It's not our fault. The court has to issue an order to have Wawan taken out of police custody and transfer him to prison. Actually, it's no problem where Wawan is jailed, since he's a state prisoner," Noegroho told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of a ceremony marking the installation of Col. Nono Suprijono as the new South Jakarta Police chief at the South Jakarta police precinct.
"Why is he still in police detention? Because the court has not ordered Wawan's transfer to a penitentiary. But, it does not matter."
Wawan was convicted at the Central Jakarta District Court on Oct. 18 to three years and two months in prison for planting the bomb which exploded at the Grand Mosque on April 19.
The 26 year old was supposed to be transferred by the police to a public penitentiary, but has instead been held in police custody at the Jakarta Police Headquarters in South Jakarta since the issuance of the verdict.
A source close to the investigation said earlier this month that Wawan would be "safer" in police custody.
"We're not quite sure about his security if he's put somewhere else. You cannot forget that he's a political prisoner. If he's shot, or if a person who visits him tries to influence him in some way or other, he'd be finished."
No reporters have been allowed to meet the prisoner, even after his arrest following the blast on the ground floor of the Grand Mosque.
Mastermind
A few days after the bombing, a former state official was alleged by unconfirmed reports to have been the mastermind behind the bombing, in an effort to ignite religious tension ahead of the general election campaign last May.
All seven suspects in the blast were reportedly staying at a rented house in Ciledug, South Jakarta, but were arrested in different places from May 7.
No one was injured during the bombing at the mosque, although windows and doors of several offices on the ground floor were damaged.
Noegroho said in June that "Wawan, the oldest among them, was the one who received the orders and directed his friends. He also was the one who planted the bomb at the mosque."
Wawan was reportedly "abducted" by a group of unidentified people in early April when he was at Gambir Railway Station in Central Jakarta.
He told police later that he was terrorized for several days and briefed on the plot of the bombing, before being sent back to the railway station, Noegroho said.
"Wawan was a street musician before he was picked up by a charity foundation in the Kebon Sirih area," Noegroho said, referring to a district in Central Jakarta.
He declined to disclose the name of the foundation, saying that police did not find any indications of its involvement in the blast. The only connection was that all suspects were trained and educated at the foundation, Noegroho said.
All of those arrested have claimed no knowledge about who gave the orders or the motives behind them. They also claimed they did not know that the wooden box carried in a black bag, which they placed in the mosque, contained a bomb. (ylt)