Police arrest two alleged JI members

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

ID Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Surabaya

Two alleged members of the Jamaah Islamiyah regional terrorist network have been arrested in Malaysia and handed over to Indonesian authorities for questioning.

The National Police's chief of detectives, Comr. Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri, told The Associated Press that Agus Idrus, alias Agus Purwantoro, and Abdurrahim, alias Abu Husna, were in police custody.

Agus is believed to be the leader of JI, which is reported to have links with al-Qaeda, in Poso, Central Sulawesi.

The two were handed over by Malaysian police over the weekend after their arrest in January.

Bambang said both men had been involved in religious violence in Poso between 2000 and 2001 that claimed more than 2,000 lives and displaced 100,000 others.

The two men are reportedly being held at the detention center of the police's elite Mobile Brigade in Kelapa Dua, Depok, about 25 kilometers south of Jakarta.

Agus graduated from Airlangga University's School of Medicine in Surabaya, East Java, in 1997.

He is reported to have served as a doctor for fugitive terrorist Noordin M. Top.

Noordin is one of the chief JI members in Central Java and is allegedly responsible for a string of bombings in the country. He has escaped arrest on several occasions.

Agus is also known to have been a student of the late terrorist Dr. Azahari, who was killed by the police's counter-terrorism unit during a raid in Malang, East Java, on Nov. 9, 2005.

Malaysian authorities arrested Agus and Husna in January for forging the passport of an executive at an Indonesian tobacco company, Deddy Achmadi Machdan.

A home belonging to Agus' mother, Sukarti Thamrin, on Jl. Petemon in Surabaya was deserted Monday. A neighbor said Sukarti had not been seen since news first broke of her son's alleged ties to terrorism.

Another neighbor, Satuman, recalled Agus as a quiet person who spent a lot of time in the mosque.

"He never caused trouble and was a devout Muslim, regularly praying at the mosque," Satuman said.

He said residents of the housing complex were more familiar with Agus' father, the late Muhammad Thamrin, and mother.

Satuman said Sukarti was actively involved in a local housewives group.

Agus married a woman from the neighboring town of Mojokerto in 2000. The couple later left Surabaya for Kalimantan.

Missing passport misused by terrorist
Tuesday, April 15, 2008

ID Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya

Beware if important documents like your passports are missing. Who knows, they may fall into the hands of a terrorist group to be later misused for illicit activities. This was experienced by Deddy Achmadi Machdan, an international communications executive of major cigarette producer PT HM Sampoerna.

Deddy was questioned by a member of the National Police's Anti-terror Detachment 88 because his missing passport was utilized by a member of a terrorist group.

The story starts back in 2003 when Deddy lost his passport in London. At the time Deddy was not aware that his backpack was open. His passport and a number of other important documents went missing.

"I only realized when I got back to my boarding house. I did not think anything more of it. What I knew was that my passport and other documents were lost," he said in Pasuruan, East Java, earlier this month.

Deddy immediately went to the Indonesian Embassy in London to inform them about the missing documents and to ask for a replacement passport.

Time passed and Deddy forgot about the missing passport.

Suddenly there was phone call from Jakarta Police Headquarters. During the conversation, police officers questioned Deddy about his missing passport.

"As I didn't know anything else, I just told them how I lost my passport in 2003," Deddy said.

The police officers later explained the case involving Deddy's passport. According to them, the passport had been misused by someone believed to be a member of a major terrorist network.

The man who misused Deddy's passport and his accomplice, who is also believed to be a member of the terrorist network, have now been detained in a Malaysian penitentiary for questioning.

Deddy was startled to find out that two Indonesians had lost their passports in London on the same day, September 19, 2003.

"I never thought about someone intentionally stealing Indonesian passports," he said.

"The man, who misused my passport, later claiming to be Achmadi Machdan', and confessed to hail from Malang, East Java," Deddy said.

As the police officers did not believe Deddy's explanation, they requested to further investigate Deddy at his house. As Deddy believed he was not guilty, he agreed to the request.

On the second-floor verandah of his house in Jakarta, the police officers showed Deddy a photocopy of his missing passport, which had since been falsified. He told the police the name was his, but the address and photo were not.

The police officers also asked Deddy to show his replacement passport. He showed his passport along with remarks about his missing passport.

According to Deddy, the police officers freed him of any further investigation. If he was unable to produce a replacement passport, the case would have become longer.

The officers later asked Deddy if he was willing to testify as a witness if needed.

Roy Marten gets 3 years in jail
Saturday, April 12, 2008

Roy Marten, one of the country's most popular movie stars in the early 1980s, was sentenced by a Surabaya court on Friday to three years in jail and a fine of Rp 3 million (about US$325) for using illegal drugs.

Berlin Damanik, the judge who presided over the trial, said the sentence was lighter than the 3.5 years demanded by prosecutors as the defendant was found guilty only of using and not selling the drugs.

Speaking to reporters following the reading of the verdict, Berlin said the court found no evidences that Roy, who was previously jailed for nine months on a similar charge, was involved in the distribution of the drugs.

"The defendant knew nothing about the distribution of the drugs as charged by prosecutors," he said.

Roy, one of many movie stars appointed by the National Narcotics Agency to promote an anti-drug campaign, was apprehended together with four accomplices in a hotel in Surabaya in November while taking crystal methamphetamine, locally known as shabu shabu.

He had reportedly been in Surabaya to witness the signing of an anti-drugs cooperation agreement between the agency and the Surabaya-based newspaper Jawa Post.

"The three-year sentence is too long. I am not a dealer," Roy told The Jakarta Post following the reading of the court's verdict. "Today's court session was only a formality. The verdict had been fixed before."

Four other defendants were earlier sentenced by the same court to between one and five years in jail. Windasari received one year, Fredy Matatullah 3.5 years and Hong Ko Hong aka Hartanto dan Didit Kesit five years.

The above picture shows Roy answering reporters' questions following the issuance of his verdict. (JP/ID Nugroho)