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| Southeast Asia | |
| Noordin's aide surrenders | |
| 2009-10-03 | |
A CLOSE aide of slain Malaysian terror leader Noordin Mohammed Top has handed himself in to Indonesian authorities, police said Saturday. National police spokesman Nanan Soekarna said in a text message Aris Ma'ruf, 23, surrendered to police in the Central Java district of Temanggung late Friday after months on the run.
Mr Soekarna did not say if Ma'ruf would be charged with any crime. Under Indonesian law, a person detained in connection with terrorism can be held for seven days before being declared a suspect. International Crisis Group analyst Sidney Jones said Ma'ruf had been an acolyte of Noordin, 41, who had helped hide him from police during his six-year manhunt. Noordin, who was killed in a bloody raid by the police last month in Central Java, is believed to have masterminded the July suicide bombing of Jakarta's JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels that left seven people dead. The 41-year old Malaysian national was also blamed for a 2003 attack on the Marriott that killed 12 people, as well as the 2004 bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta and 2005 attacks on tourist restaurants on the holiday island of Bali. Noordin, a former accountant, led a violent splinter faction of the radical Jemaah Islamiyah network that he once dubbed 'Al-Qaeda in the Malay Archipelago'. His body was buried with full Muslim rites in the Malaysian state of Johor on Friday. | |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #1 This should result in some good intel. |
| Posted by: tipover 2009-10-03 21:15 |