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| Southeast Asia |
| Indonesia: Terror fugitive may have escaped |
| 2009-08-11 |
| [ADN Kronos] Fingerprint analysis is expected to show that a man killed by Indonesian police at the weekend was not fugitive terror suspect Noordin Mohammed Top, according to senior police. Police sources said tests on a body recovered after the shootout are likely to confirm that it is not that of the main suspect wanted for hotel bombings in Jakarta. "It's not him. We know from his facial structure as well as his fingerprints," a police source told the media. "We're continuing to track his whereabouts." Noordin was reported by the local media to have been shot dead by police after a 17-hour siege at a remote property in Central Java on Saturday. At least one body was brought out of the house after the police siege, but sources said on Sunday that the dead man was an associate of Noordin, and not him. DNA tests were being conducted in Jakarta on Monday to confirm the identity of the body. "It takes three days to do a DNA test and the body was delivered yesterday for checks," Dino Djalal, an adviser to Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said. "The body was obviously that of a terrorist, it is just a question of whether or not it was Noordin Top or not. Even if it was not Noordin Top it is an achievement on the part of the police to raid that house where they found explosives and militants." One of Noordin's wives and their children were reporte d to be travelling to the capital to provide samples. Senior counter-terrorism official Ansyad Mbai refused to comment on the identity of the body retrieved from the property. "It's better that we wait for the forensic identification," he said. Noordin, a 40-year-old Malaysian Islamist, is wanted for multiple suicide bombings against western targets in Indonesia since 2003. Noordin was thought to have masterminded the 2002 Bali bombing, which killed 202 people, the 2003 JW Marriott hotel bombing in Jakarta, the 2004 Australian embassy bombing in Jakarta, and the 2005 Bali bombings. He is one of the most wanted alleged terror masterminds in Asia, and has a 100,000 dollar bounty on his head from the Indonesian government. The police source indicated that Noordin may have escaped from the Central Java farmhouse before police laid siege to it around 4pm local time on Friday. |
| Posted by:Fred |