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Farouk Arnaz & Dwayne Carruthers

Friends and family mourn Garth McEvoy in Jakarta on Tuesday. McEvoy, an Australia national, was killed in last week's hotel bombings. (AP Photo/Irwin Fedriansyah)

Police Trailed Jakarta Bomb Suspect In 2007

The suspected suicide bomber in last week’s attack at the JW Marriott Hotel had been on the police’s wanted list since 2006 and was under police surveillance when he managed to disappear in 2007, a police source said on Tuesday.

The police source told the Jakarta Globe on condition of anonymity that the suspect, who is also suspected of involvement in the planning of the 2003 bombing of the Marriott, first came to the attention of police following a 2006 raid on the Central Java hideout of Noordin Mohammad Top, the alleged leader of a Jemaah Islamiyah faction.

The suspect was located following another raid in 2007, and was placed under surveillance in the hope that he would lead police to Noordin. However, the suspect disappeared.

National Police Chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri over the weekend identified one of the two suspected suicide bombers in Friday’s twin attacks only as “N,” saying he didn’t want to compromise the investigation.

Police sources later named the suspect, who they said had checked into a room at the Marriott, as 35-year-old Nur Rusdi, also known as Nur Hasbi and Nur Sahid.

National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Sulistyo Ishak confirmed that on Monday Nur’s parents were taken away by police officers from their village in Temanggung, Central Java, to have DNA samples taken.

Sulistyo said police had also taken DNA samples from the family of a Ritz-Carlton Hotel employee named Ibrahim who had been missing for several days. Ibrahim is from Cirebon, West Java.

“His family came to us and reported that they have lost contact with Ibrahim,” Sulistyo said, without providing details.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a police investigator told the Globe, “We still have to wait for the DNA testing to see whether Nur was the suicide bomber at the Marriott, but we have actually been looking for him since April 2006 after we raided the suspected hideout of” Noordin in Wonosobo, Central Java.

The investigator said Noordin escaped the raid, but police shot a man named Abdul Hadi, who was believed to have helped recruit Asmar Latin Sani, a suicide bomber involved in the 2003 attack on the Marriott, and bomb maker Jabir.

Police also arrested Salahuddin Sutowijoyo, who was involved in the 2002 Atrium Senen Mall bombing.

“After the raid we had specific information about Nur’s role in several previous terror networks and attacks,” he said.

He said Nur was also believed to be involved in the preparations for the first Marriott bombing, together with Abdul Hadi.

The police source said Asmar Latin Sani, Abdul Hadi and Nur all attended the Ngruki Islamic Boarding School in Solo, Central Java, together. Nur was also believed to be a member of Laskar Khos — meaning “special force” in Arabic — a faction of the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah. He is believed to have been responsible for multiple attacks across Indonesia.

Police said Nur was also linked to two other terrorist suspects: Ahmad Basyir Umar, who was arrested in Surabaya, East Java, in March 2006; and Kholili, who was captured in Semarang, Central Java, in November 2005.

In March 2007, Nur’s name appeared once again when police fatally shot Agus Mahmudi in Sleman, Yogyakarta.

“After we apprehended several terrorist suspects we found that Nur also had links with them,” the police source said.

Nur was almost arrested in Klaten, Central Java, where his mother-in-law lives.

“But our commander at the time changed the plan and ordered us instead to follow him until he led us to Noordin,” the source said.
Police followed Nur to Kendal, near the Central Java capital of Semarang, but Nur managed to slip away.

Another source said the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) had alerted the National Police about Nur two years ago in connection with their surveillance of the so-called Palembang terrorist cell, which was broken up in 2008.

“But the police didn’t have any evidence to arrest Nur, so they didn’t,” the source said.

Meanwhile, two bodies at the police hospital in East Jakarta from Friday’s bombings were likely those of two Dutch nationals, Sulistyo said.

“We are waiting for DNA samples from their families,” he said.

If confirmed, the number of foreigners killed in the twin bomb attacks would rise to six.