13 held over Indonesian bombings

INDONESIAN police have arrested 13 more people suspected of involvement in a wave of bombings across the country, a police spokesman said.

The arrests were made following information gained from several of the 10 suspects detained over last month’s car bombing at the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta, said senior commissioner Zainuri Lubis, a police spokesman.

Nine of the suspects were arrested in Jakarta, two in Lampung in southern Sumatra, and two in the Central Java city of Solo, Mr Lubis said yesterday.

“All 13 suspects are now under questioning here in Jakarta,” Mr Lubis said, declining to provide further details.

National police detective chief Erwin Mappaseng told reporters yesterday the 13 had held meetings in October 2002 and early 2003 to plan terror attacks, and to discuss the future of the families of fellow militants arrested for their roles in the October 12 Bali bombings.

“Some of those meetings discussed plans of new terror attacks but we have not yet obtained information on where they were to be launched,” he said.

The meetings were chaired by Abu Rusdan, who allegedly replaced Abu Bakar Bashir as the head of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) regional extremist network. Some were also attended by key Bali bombing suspect Mukhlas, Mr Mappaseng said.

Rusdan has been in detention since April and Mukhlas is on trial for the Bali blasts.

An Indonesian court early this month sentenced Bashir to four years in prison for participating in a plot to overthrow the government, but ruled he was not the head of JI.

Mr Mappaseng said that one of the Lampung suspects, Ari Wibowo, knew that a bombing was being planned but he did not know then that it would turn out to be the Marriott hotel attack.

Another of the arrested suspects, Awaluddin, is believed linked to a bombing in the North Sumatran city of Medan in May 2000 along with three other people acting on the orders of Hambali, an alleged senior leader of JI who is in US custody, Mappaseng said.

“The others only participated in the meetings,” Mr Mappaseng said.

Indonesia has been hit by a series of deadly bombings since 1998, including the Bali bombing that killed 202 people and the JW Marriott hotel attack that left 12 people dead on August 5.