INDONESIAN POLICE are investigating a possible link to al-Qaeda in last month’s deadly suicide bombings of two of Jakarta’s top hotels, after they arrested a man believed to be from Saudi Arabia on suspicion of smuggling money used to fund the attacks.
Police suspect that the terror network bankrolled the terrorist cell that carried out the bombings at the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels on July 17th, which killed nine people. Al-Qaeda is believed to have financed previous suicide attacks in Indonesia.
An Indonesian court revealed in 2004 that there had been a flow of cash funnelled from al-Qaeda’s then second-in-command, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, via Indonesian students studying in Pakistan, to fund an earlier attack on Jakarta’s JW Marriot hotel in 2003.
Malaysian Islamist extremist Noordin Mohammed Top is believed to be behind that truck bombing. He is Indonesia’s most-wanted man and is blamed for a series of attacks against westerners in the largely Muslim country that have killed about 50 people and wounded hundreds.
Noordin heads a violent wing of the Jemaah Islamiah militant network and he is believed to have masterminded last month’s attacks. Police are said to be checking women wearing burqas as he is said to frequently disguise himself by wearing the all-covering garment.
Police also suspect al-Qaeda involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people.
Police spokesman Nanan Sukarna told a news conference that they had arrested two men, who he identified only as Ali and Iwan, in west Java. One of the men was carrying a Saudi Arabian passport and they were checking to see if it was genuine.
“The police are investigating Ali and Iwan’s involvement, their links to another country in terms of funding,” said Mr Soekarna.
“We suspect he is a Saudi Arabian citizen, but we still need to prove whether his citizenship is fake or not,” he said.
Local media said the man was Iwan Herdiansyah, 27, who owns an internet cafe and spent several years in Medina, Saudi Arabia, before returning to Indonesia 13 months ago.
The police did not specifically mention al-Qaeda, but sources later confirmed officials were checking for links to Osama bin-Laden’s group, and also checking possible links to groups in Yemen. Saifuddin Jaelani, an Islamic cleric who allegedly recruited at least one of the suicide bombers for the hotel attacks, apparently spent four years in Yemen as a student.
The police released photographs of four more men believed to be involved in the hotel attacks. One suspect, Bagus Budi Pranoto, also known as Urwah, had been jailed in 2004 for harbouring Noordin and an accomplice.
Another suspect is Sy Syaifudin Zuhri bin Djaelani Irsyad, who is suspected of recruiting not only the two men who blew themselves up inside the luxury hotels, but also of engaging the services of a man called Ibrohim, who worked as a florist inside the hotels.