Posted on 11/24/2002 7:41:06 PM PST by ds2000
25 Nov 2002 02:30 Key Bali bombing suspect moved to Jakarta
JAKARTA, Nov 25 (Reuters) - The man Indonesian police identify as the mastermind of last month's Bali bombings has been moved to Jakarta for further questioning, deputy National Police spokesman Edward Aritonang said on Monday.
Asked whether Imam Samudra had now been moved to the capital, Aritonang told Reuters: "Yes, the questioning starts today (in Jakarta)."
Samudra was arrested in Banten province in western Java on Thursday and held there for questioning. Over the weekend, police conducted a number of house searches in the area as well as in Central Java province.
Police said on Sunday they found books and video discs of speeches by Osama bin Laden in a house rented by Samudra, whom they say was the key planner and ground coordinator of the October 12 attacks in Bali that killed at least 185 people, most of them foreign tourists.
"While in the house rented by Imam Samudra, we found several books and two boxes of video compact discs on the lectures and speeches of Osama bin Laden," Central Java Chief Police Detective Commissioner Rus Bagyo told reporters.
Bagyo said the house was among three police searched in a village three kilometres (two miles) from the Ngruki Islamic boarding school near the city of Solo in Central Java.
Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged leader of the Jemaah Islamiah regional militant network, was a founder of the school and was teaching there until he was arrested early this month over other bombing incidents in Indonesia.
Bashir denies any wrongdoing or any link to Jemaah Islamiah, which intelligence agencies have tied to bin Laden's al Qaeda network, suspected of carrying out last year's September 11 attacks in the United States.
Some Indonesian and foreign officials blame the Bali attack on Jemaah Islamiah, but police say a connection has yet to be proved.
After questioning in Jakarta, Samudra is likely to be moved to Bali, along with other suspects arrested last week in Banten.
Aritonang said the move would come "as soon as the probe finishes here (Jakarta)" but would not be on Monday.
He said two men believed to be Samudra's bodyguards and suspected of involvement in the Bali bombing had been moved to Jakarta with him. They were also arrested in Banten last week.
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