Up to court to move bombing suspect: Noegroho

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)