LAKSAMANA.Net, June 28, 2004 11:59 PM
Marriott Bombing Suspect Arrested
Laksamana.Net - Police announced Monday (28/6/04) they have arrested a Muslim
militant for alleged involvement in the August 2003 bombing of Jakarta's JW Marriott
Hotel that killed 12 people.
National Police chief General Dai Bachtiar said Leo Dahlan was arrested Sunday in
West Nusa Tenggara province.
Officers had initially declined to identify the suspect, prompting media speculation
that police had caught either Azahari bin Husin or Noordin Mohammed Top - two
Malaysian bomb makers being hunted for alleged involvement in Marriott blast and the
October 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people.
The bombings have been blamed on regional terrorism network Jemaah Islamiyah,
which is reportedly planning to carry out more attacks against Western targets.
Western intelligence officials recently said Jemaah Islamiyah has sent a “suicide
squad" from the southern Philippines to Indonesia with aim of killing foreign business
executives and diplomats, as well as prominent Indonesian public figures.
Azahari and Top, who are both members of Jemaah Islamiyah, narrowly avoided
capture in the West Java capital of Bandung last November and have not been spotted
since then.
Bachtiar said Dahlan was one of Top's co-conspirators in the planning of the Marriott
bombing. "Leo Dahlan had planned the JW Marriott bombing with Noordin. We
arrested him in West Nusa Tenggara," he was quoted as saying by detikcom online
news portal.
The police chief said he was optimistic Azahari and Top would soon be caught. "How
could the police not be more clever than them?" he said.
Separately, deputy police chief Dadang Garnida said Dahlan has been linked to an
alleged Jemaah Islamiyah member named Adi Suryana, who was arrested in January
in the East Java capital of Surabaya for allegedly planning to bomb National Police
headquarters and Jakarta Police headquarters.
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