The Jakarta Post, January 21, 2006
Noordin's followers admit role in robberies: Police
Blontank Poer, The Jakarta Post, Surakarta/Jakarta
At least two of the six men arrested recently for their alleged links with terror suspect
Noordin M. Top, had taken part in armed robberies, the Central Java Police chief said
Friday.
"Some of them have confessed to having been involved in several criminal cases,"
Insp. Gen. Dodi Sumantyawan said, refusing to name the all the suspects. "But we
have yet to discover whether their crimes were connected with acts of terrorism."
Others in the group were believed to have taken part in the robbery of a jewelry store
in Tegal, East Java, in October 2005, he said.
"We are looking into whether the rubbery was committed to fund terrorist activities,"
Dodi said.
He said Subur Sugiarto, one of the detained men, had confessed that he had been
involved in several crimes using firearms in Surakarta in 2001, a year before the first
Bali bombing that killed 202 people.
National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam has said police were
investigating the possibility that robberies were being carried out by terrorists to
finance their operations in Indonesia.
"According to the investigation results of the first Bali bombing, the perpetrators,
Imam Samudra and his team members, robbed banks and jewelry stores to raise
funds for the attack," he said recently.
The allegations of terrorist connections with robberies have gained credibility based on
documents discovered in the hideout of Azahari bin Husin who was killed in a raid in
Malang on Nov. 9 last year.
In the past few months, several robberies have taken place at banks and jewelry
stores in Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Tangerang, causing losses of hundreds of millions
of rupiah.
Anton said Friday that after seven days of thorough investigations, the police named
four of the men as suspects for their alleged links with the latest Bali bombing and for
sheltering Noordin.
They are Joko Suroso, Ardi Wibowo, Aditya Triyoga, and Puji Sriyono.
"They helped Noordin in preparing the bomb attack in Bali on Oct. 1, 2005," Anton
told The Jakarta Post.
The suspects also helped hide the Malaysian fugitive in Semarang, he said.
Anton said the police's belief that the four were involved in the recent Bali attack was
based on the testimony of several witnesses and other evidence.
Police confiscated revolvers, ammunition, documents, VCDs and cellular phones from
the suspects.
Joko, Ardi and Puji were arrested in two separate operations in Semarang on Jan. 13,
while Aditya was nabbed a day later in Klaten, Central Java.
Subur Sugiarto was arrested in Boyolali, Central Java, on Jan. 18, while traveling on a
bus heading to Semarang. The last man, Abu Sayaf, was caught by police one day
later in Karang Anyar, Central Java.
Dodi said that apart from being involved in rubbery cases, Subur allegedly recruited
men for terrorist attacks along with Noordin. (09)
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