Posted on 08/16/2003 10:56:01 PM PDT by MJY1288
Aug 17, 1:24 AM EDT
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Nine people have been arrested in connection with last week's attack on the Marriot Hotel in Jakarta that killed 12 people and injured nearly 150, the national police chief said Sunday.
Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said the nine suspects had been picked up in separate raids over the past week. He gave no further details.
On Friday, police said they had detained one suspect and were interrogating several others in connection with the attack on Aug. 5 in downtown Jakarta.
Bachtiar's announcement came two days after the arrest in Thailand of Hambali, an Indonesian whose real name is Riduan Isamuddin, the alleged mastermind of al-Qaida's campaign of bombings in Southeast Asia.
Hambali was the head of the al-Qaida linked terror group Jemaah Islamiyah that is blamed for both the Marriott blast and October suicide bombings in Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. He is now being interrogated by U.S. investigators at an unknown location.
The speed with which the arrests were made in the latest bombing indicates that police investigators may have the same degree of success in solving the Marriot bombing as they had with the Oct. 12 bombings of two nightclubs on Bali.
In the ensuing months, police arrested nearly three dozen suspects.
The first of these to face trial, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim was convicted last week and sentenced to be executed by firing squad. He is appealing his conviction.
Indonesia has said it would demand access to Hambali and his eventual extradition to stand trial here.
On Saturday, President Megawati Sukarnoputri telephoned President Bush to discuss the matter, Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said Sunday after a national day ceremony at the presidential palace.
Speaking to reporters after the ceremony, Bachtiar said the Indonesian national police would dispatch two of its interrogators to question Hambali, as soon as U.S. approval is received.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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