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| Southeast Asia |
| 4 in Aceh face terror charges |
| 2010-03-02 |
| [Straits Times] INDONESIAN police have charged four men with terrorism-related offenses after they were arrested in a raid on a suspected paramilitary training camp in the restive province of Aceh a week ago, a newspaper reported on Monday. Aceh Police Chief Commander Esa Permadi said the men - two from Aceh and two from the main Indonesian island of Java - had been charged under tough counterterrorism laws enacted in 2003, the Jakarta Globe newspaper reported. The report did not give details of the charges, and police declined to comment on the report on Monday. A national police official in Jakarta, Brig. Gen. Sulistiyo Ishak, told The Associated Press that an announcement on the prisoners' status would be made on Tuesday. The four were arrested Feb 22 when more than 100 police officers raided the suspected training camp hidden in Aceh mountains. Police are allowed to hold the four without charge until Tuesday. Police say 50 armed militants fled into the jungle after an hour-long gunbattle in which an innocent bystander was killed in the crossfire. Police say they suspect the arrested men are part of the first cell of the Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah ever found in Aceh. But several security analysts independent of the investigation have expressed doubts about a JI link, although there are currently no other militant groups known to operate in Aceh. Al-Qaida-linked JI has been blamed for a number of bloody attacks in Southeast Asia, including a 2002 bombing on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people. Information gleaned from the four suspects led police to arrest another three suspected militants on Thursday in a raid on a village house in Aceh. All seven suspects are in police custody in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh. |
| Posted by:Fred |