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| Southeast Asia |
| Cops pick up Azahari's cell phone |
| 2004-09-14 |
| Indonesian police picked up the cell phone signals of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) bomb-maker Dr Azahari Hussin a day after the bombing outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta. The cell phone line, which Indonesian police had been monitoring since the Jakarta J.W. Marriott bombing last August, came alive twice, enough to enable the police to pinpoint its location but not to warrant a manhunt. A source told The Malay Mail that both signals lasted less than a minute last Friday. Indonesian police have a list of Azahari's cell phone numbers. With the help of the Australian and American intelligence agencies, Indonesian police are able to locate him, via the Global Positioning system (GPS), when his lines are activated. The source said they picked up the first signal in Bandung, slightly after 10am. "Six hours later, they picked up another signal from the same cell phone, as it was moving towards east of Bandung." The source said it was rare that they had picked up two signals in a day. "Occasionally, the police would get a beep from the cell phone on the radar screen, but only for a short while." The source said the two signals were their first after more than four months. "Police believe Azahari was using the phone to retrieve or send SMS," said the source. "Police are now stepping up their surveillance on Azahari in Semarang, Solo and Klaten. They think he may be heading there to seek refuge as he has lots of friends there." Police also believe he travelled with Noordin Mohammed Top, another Malaysian fugitive who is also wanted for the Bali and J.W. Marriott bombings. One evidence obtained by Indonesian investigators revealed that Azahari and Noordin, together with his cell members, had hatched a plan in Surabaya, East Java, early this year, to set off a bomb. The initial plan was to kill Australian and Indonesian dignitaries officiating the opening of the anti-terrorism training school in Semarang, Central Java, in July. But the plan did not materialise. The source said Indonesian police believe that Azahari and Noordin had stayed in Surabaya for a while before moving to Salatinga in Central Java in early June. "But their stay in Salatinga was brief. They subsequently moved to Solo in June. Somehow, they got wind of an impending raid and fled. "In the raid, police arrested five suspected JI members." At the end of July, police traced Azahari and three others to a house in Cengkareng, near Jakarta. The source said police went to the rented house but they were three days late. In the house, police found traces of sulphur and TNT, the ingredients used for the latest Jakarta bombing. The source said Azahari and his men had paid the rental for the house two months in advance. "They came to the house on July 23 but left four days later." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |