Terror suspect's wife held over hotel bombing

Police have arrested the wife of one of Southeast Asia’s most wanted terror suspects and plan to charge her in connection with last year’s suicide bombing at the Marriott hotel in the Indonesian capital, police said today.

Munfiatun Al Fitri, the second wife of Malaysian militant Noordin Mohamed Top, will be charged with hiding her husband after the August 5 blast in Jakarta, which killed 12 people and injured more than 100, said police anti-terror chief Brig Gen Pranowo.

“We have arrested Munfiatun Al Fitri as a suspect in the Marriott bombing,” said Pranowo, who goes by a single name.

“We caught her September 22 at the Miftahul Huda Islamic boarding school in West Java and she has admitted being the wife of Noordin Mohamed Top.”

Police said Munfaitun met Noordin in June and married him a day later, believing him to be a good Muslim. Her crime is that she refused to tell police about Noordin’s whereabouts despite knowing he was a suspect in the Marriott bombing and other attacks.

Authorities suspect that Noordin and another Malaysian, Azahari bin Husin, are key leaders in the al Qaida-linked terror group Jemaah Islamiyah which has been blamed for a string of attacks in Indonesia dating back to 1999.

They are also accused of being the masterminds of the September 9 Australian Embassy bombing in Jakarta that left nine dead and of playing key roles in the October 12, 2002, Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people.

Both men have eluded a police manhunt for the past year. But authorities have said they are close to making an arrest, after detaining scores of militants who provided information about them.