Indonesian police, who have rounded up 18 alleged members of the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terror network, say three of them will be flown to Bali to be questioned as suspects in the October 12 bombings. The 18 suspects are now being detained at national police headquarters in Jakarta. National police chief General Da'i Bachtiar says the seizures indicate JI was planning fresh terrorist attacks before next year's general elections.
National police spokesman Zainuri Lubis says Saad alias Ahmad Roichan, Umar Besar alias Wayan, and Sawad will soon be taken to Bali to join other suspects in the Bali blasts which killed 202 people including 88 Australians. Police announced the arrest of the 18 yesterday, the same day the alleged leader of JI, Abu Bakar Bashir, went on trial for treason. "We were looking for Bali bombing suspects and we found them. It turned out that they confessed to be members of JI and know each other," Mr Lubis said. Mr Lubis says a fourth suspect is also believed to have taken part in the Bali plot but his name cannot be revealed.
Police already have 30 people in custody in Bali over the bombings. Mr Lubis says eight others are still being sought. Among the 18 suspects arrested are Abu Rusdan, the man who allegedly replaced Bashir as JI's leader after Bashir was arrested last October. Also held is Malaysian national Nasir Abbas, whom police say is a sub-regional chief of JI. Abbas is also said to be a brother-in-law of Ali Ghufron alias Mukhlas, a key suspect in the Bali bombing.
Dig deep enough, and I'll betcha that most, if not all of them, are inbred related... |
Mr Lubis says police seized a Magnum revolver, a broken US-made Smith and Wesson revolver, 6,620 bullets, 25 kilograms of sulphur, 15 kilograms of potassium, low explosive materials and fertiliser from the suspects.
| With that many rounds, no wonder it's busted... |
"Threats of new attacks always exist. We have to remain vigilant," he said. Indonesia's top detective Erwin Mappaseng was quoted by Kompas newspaper as saying that Rusdan's name emerged during investigations of the Bali bombing. He is thought to have been active in JI since 2001.
| Barely got started in his new job, and now they've got to find somebody else to replace him. Maybe they should put an ad on Monster.com... |
Twelve of the suspects were arrested in Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi province. Without specifying the source of its information, Kompas says that during the arrests in Palu police found a bomb which was ready to explode at an unknown location.
Bashir is not accused over the Bali blasts. He is charged with waging a jihad or holy war to topple the Jakarta government and set up an Islamic state.
|