Police arrest nine over Jakarta hotel blast

Indonesian police have arrested nine people in connection with last week’s attack on the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta which killed 12 people and injured nearly 150, the national police chief said today.

Gen Da’i Bachtiar said the nine had been picked up in separate raids over the past week. He gave no further details.

On Friday, police said they had detained one suspect and were interrogating several others in connection with the attack on August 5 in downtown Jakarta.

The speed with which the arrests were made in the latest bombing indicates that police may have the same degree of success in solving the Marriott bombing as they had with last October's Bali nightclub bombings in which 202 people died.

In the ensuing months, police arrested nearly three dozen suspects.

The first of these to face trial, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, was convicted last week and sentenced to be executed by firing squad. He is now appealing against his conviction.

Bachtiar’s announcement came two days after the arrest in Thailand of Riduan Isamuddin, known as Hambali, head of the al Qaida-linked terror group Jemaah Islamiyah that is blamed for both the Bali and Marriott blasts. He is now being interrogated by US investigators at an unknown location.

Indonesia has said it would demand access to Hambali and his eventual extradition to stand trial.

President Megawati Sukarnoputri telephoned US President George Bush yesterday to discuss the matter.

Bachtiar said the Indonesian national police would dispatch two of its interrogators to question Hambali, as soon as US approval was received.