Jakarta man arrested for Bali nightclub bombings
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Your support makes all the difference.Indonesian police have arrested a man who resembles one of three key suspects sought for the Bali bombings that killed nearly 200 people three weeks ago.
The man, identified only by the initials R S, was detained at a bus terminal on the island of Flores, 300 miles east of Bali, on Thursday. He has been flown to the Balinese capital, Denpasar, for questioning.
The man is said to be a Jakarta resident aged about 33. He was born in Ambon, capital of Indonesia's Maluku islands. According to the district police chief, Victor Edison Simandjuntak, he tried to conceal his face when he was picked up in the town of Bajawa, on Flores.
Mr Simandjuntak said the suspect had refused to answer many of the police's questions, although he had told them that he was on holiday in Flores and was in Bajawa looking for a hotel for the night.
Investigators yesterday began questioning Abu Bakar Bashir, the radical cleric believed to be the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, an extremist group widely blamed for the Bali bombs. Mr Bashir, who collapsed with respiratory problems a fortnight ago, was removed from hospital in his home town of Solo, in central Java, last week and taken to Jakarta.
Police spent five hours trying to interrogate him without success. A team of 10 detectives handed him a list of 50 questions, but he refused to answer all except basic queries about his name and health, according to his lawyer, Ahmad Michdan. Mr Michdan said Mr Bashir told police his arrest was illegal. "Even if he is a suspect, he has the right to remain silent," he said.
Mr Bashir, 64, was arrested in connection with a series of bomb attacks on Indonesian churches in December 2000 and an alleged plot to assassinate President Megawati Sukarnoputri. He has not been named as a suspect in the Bali bombings.
Mr Michdan said his client refused to talk about his ties to Jemaah Islamiyah, which is on the United Nations' list of terrorist organisations and is reputedly linked to al-Qa'ida. He was also asked about violations of immigration law in Malaysia, where he fled in 1985 after Indonesian authorities tried to arrest him for campaigning for the introduction of Islamic sharia law.
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