Posted on 06/09/2003 11:31:29 AM PDT by knighthawk
INDONESIAN police have arrested one of the eight outstanding key suspects in the Bali bombings, who is believed to have recruited up to five potential suicide bombers for the attack.
Heri Hafudin was captured in Bandung late last month, but his arrest has been kept secret. It is understood he introduced bombing mastermind Imam Samudra to the two terrorists who died in the blast.
The remains of Feri, known as Iqbal, were found in Paddy's bar, and those of Arnasan, also known as Iqbal, were scattered up to 125m away. Police in Bali are expected to confirm the arrest this morning.
In court yesterday, the man who sold confessed bomber Amrozi one tonne of chemicals for the attack admitted he willingly wrote a false invoice and said he did not know potassium chlorate made fireworks.
He was "very disappointed and sad" when he learned his shop had been the source of the devastating bomb. Sylvester Tendean, a protestant from Surabaya who is only one week out of jail, yesterday told the Denpasar District Court he had learned of his link to Indonesia's worst terrorist attack after he was arrested on November 6 last year.
He dismissed his move to disguise the purchase as an attempt to help a client who "came to me with a nice attitude".
Tendean said he had dummied up the invoice for the chemicals, bought two months earlier, after a request from Amrozi. But as he did last week when his brother pitched him more as a terrorist planner than a henchman, Amrozi again objected to the incriminating claim.
"Mr Tendean, I hope you still remember that when you asked what to write I said it was up to you," Amrozi said.
"I didn't request it. All I wanted was the 11 million rupiah ($2050, the price he paid) written down."
Tendean served seven months' jail for writing the false invoices and for selling chemicals without a licence.
Also in the witness box yesterday was the first expert witness called in the trial, a specialist from the Indonesian National Police forensic laboratory, who spent two months analysing the three crime scenes in the wake of the October 12 blasts.
Surrounded by what remained of the Mitsubishi L300, Rudi Aris Puspito described how lucky police had been in uncovering the engraved chassis number that eventually led to the downfall of the 36 alleged terrorists arrested so far.
Their first break came on October 24, just 12 days after the blasts, when police uncovered the number P611286 on the van's chassis. But that number was soon found to have been doctored – and useless to investigators.
Then on November 2, a small piece of wreckage revealed a number the terrorists had overlooked. The eight-figure code, DPR 15463, was the van's public transport registration number.
The plot's alleged mastermind, Imam Samudra, will proceed to a full trial on Thursday after five judges threw out his defence team's objections yesterday.
Good. Thanks for the post.
***Operation Infinite Freedom - Situation Room - 9 JUN 03/Day 82***
http://www.centcom.mil/
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