The Jakarta Post, May 08, 2006
Police claim arrested men are Noordin's accomplices
Ruslan Sangadji, The Jakarta Post, Palu, Central Sulawesi
Two of the five men arrested Friday night in Tolitoli regency, Central Sulawesi, were
accomplices of Noordin M. Top, one of Asia's most wanted terror suspects, police
said Sunday.
Central Sulawesi Police chief Brig. Gen. Oegroseno said the two were members of
Noordin's network and are believed to have provided Noordin with safe harbor in
Semarang, Central Java.
The five -- Apriyantono, alias Irwan, Arman, alias Haris, Asrudin, Nano and Abdul Muis
-- were picked up by police antiterror uniit Detachment 88 late Friday after an
investigation into their activities and possible links to Noordin's network.
The police also confiscated evidence in the raid, such as two bullets, a compact disc
and books on jihad.
However, Oegroseno declined to identify the two men who are thought to be
accomplices of Noordin.
"I can't tell you which two of them, but we believe they have close links to Noordin,"
he told The Jakarta Post, adding that the five men had moved to Tolitoli only about
three months ago.
Ogroseno said police were still questioning the five suspects.
The police were expected to take them to the National Police headquarters in Jakarta
soon for cross-examination with a number of men who were captured in Wonosobo,
Central Java, during an April 29 antiterror raid on a house thought to be Noordin's
hideout.
Locals said the five men arrested in Tolitoli had passed themselves off as
breadmakers and even reported to the community head as soon as they arrived at the
regency, thus raising no suspicions.
Local neighborhood head Asmad Jafara said the police had asked him for assistance
in spying on the five before they were arrested.
Asmad said the five did not resist arrest as police dragged them into a car to take
them to an unidentified location.
Asrudin was the first to be arrested, when several plainclothes policemen tried to buy
snacks from him.
After questioning Asrudin, the antiterror unit later raided a rented house in Nalu
regency, in urban Tolitoli, and picked up the other four.
Asrudin's wife, Salma, said she had been told by the police about the arrest.
"The police said my husband was arrested based on information that he had allegedly
been involved in terror activities and the murder of a soldier's wife," she said.
Salma, who has maintained her husband's innocence, said the five men had only
been in Tolitoli for three months, selling snacks and crackers. She said they moved
there from Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi, where they had worked as seasonal
laborers.
The arrests were the latest since the Wonosobo raid, in which two terror suspects
were shot dead and two others captured alive.
The house was suspected to be the place where Noordin and his accomplices were
preparing for another terror attack. Explosive materials and instructional books on
bomb-making were seized.
Noordin escaped arrest, however.
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