INDONESIA: THE SUSPECTED GROUND COMMANDER OF BALI BOMBINGS HAS ADMITTED HE KNEW ISLAMIC MILITANT HAMBALI WANTED BY INDONESIANA OVER TERROR CASES

Record ID: 358836

  • Title: INDONESIA: THE SUSPECTED GROUND COMMANDER OF BALI BOMBINGS HAS ADMITTED HE KNEW ISLAMIC MILITANT HAMBALI WANTED BY INDONESIANA OVER TERROR CASES
  • Date: 27th November 2002
  • Summary: (U2) SOLO, CENTRAL JAVA, INDONESIA (RECENT - NOVEMBER 24, 2002) (REUTERS-ACCESS ALL) 1. PAN EXTERIOR OF IMAM SAMUDRA'S HOUSE IN SOLO 0.06 2. SLV/SV POLICE AND JOURNALISTS OUTSIDE POLICE STATION (2 SHOTS) 0.15 3. SV/CU MATERIALS SEIZED FROM SAMUDRA'S HOUSE (7 SHOTS) 0.52 4. SLV/SV/CU OF POLICE CHECKING FINGERPRINT FROM MATERIALS SEIZ
  • Embargoed: 12th December 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SOLO AND JAKARTA, INDONESIA
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Reuters ID: LVA8ABT3OMCQEO0XQLFLG7S724NE
  • Story Text: The suspected ground commander of last month's deadly
    Bali bombings has admitted he knew Islamic militant Hambali,
    wanted by Indonesia and several other countries over terror
    cases, police said on Wednesday.



    National Police chief General Da'i Bachtiar said Imam
    Samudra, whom authorities identify as a top planner and the
    ground commander of the October 12 attacks that killed 185
    people, first denied any links to Hambali, alleged operational
    leader of Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian militant group
    linked to Al Qaeda.

    "Imam Samudra's and Amrozi's statements are similar. Imam
    Samudra has told us much, but many is still hidden, for
    instance he didn't say that he knew Hambali before. But, after
    we backed it with evidence and other findings, he then
    confessed, 'Yes, I know Hambali," Bachtiar told reporters on
    Wednesday (November 27), declining to elaborate on details of
    the connection.

    The 35-year old Samudra was arrested last week near
    Jakarta as he tried to board a ferry heading for the island of
    Sumatra.

    Police say Samudra has confessed to participating in the
    Bali attacks. They also have said he admitted his involvement
    in blasts that rocked churches in several Indonesian cities on
    Christmas Eve 2000.

    Hambali is also wanted for involvement in the church
    attacks.

    Asked whether Samudra has described his links to another
    Christmas bombing suspect, Abu Bakar Bashir, whom several
    Southeast Asian nations say is Jemaah Islamiah's spiritual
    leader, the police general said: "Now he hasn't told us."
    Bashir who is staying in a police hospital as a detainee,
    has denied any wrongdoing or knowledge of Jemaah Islamiah.

    Police only got answers from him to a few questions earlier
    this month before he refused to cooperate with investigators
    until a set of conditions are met.

    Police have not said either Hambali or Bashir was part of
    the Bali bomb plot.

    Indonesian police say they have arrested 15 people so far
    during investigations over the blasts on Indonesia's paradise
    island, but it is unclear how many are directly implicated.

    Samudra is currently being held in police headquarters in
    Jakarta and it is unclear when police will bring him to Bali,
    where the first arrested Bali suspect Amrozi is now being
    detained and where they say Samudra and other suspects will
    eventually be moved.

    Meanwhile Indonesia police continued their investigation.

    On Sunday (November 24), police checked weapons and
    ammunition, and Osama bin Laden tapes, VCDs, and books found
    at Samudra's rented house in Solo.

    Police have based much of their investigation on
    confessions they say have spilled from Amrozi. Police say most
    of his statements match with Samudra's confession, but a few
    discrepancies have appeared.

    One startling revelation after Samudra's arrest was an
    assertion by him that the blast in Paddy's Pub, one of the two
    bombed nightclubs in Bali's famed Kuta tourist area, was a
    suicide bombing.

    Police had said previously they thought the bomb was
    planted by a man who is on their wanted list.

    The suggestion of a suicide bomber has added a new
    dimension to the threat posed by Islamic militants in the
    region, Australian police have said.


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