http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2009/08/200981245233503471.html
Jakarta bomb suspect still alive
Police say the dead man was a hotel florist and a follower of
Noordin Mohammad Top [AFP]
DNA tests carried out by Indonesian police have confirmed that the body of a
man killed in a weekend raid is not that of Noordin Mohammad Top, the suspected
mastermind of last month's Jakarta hotel bombings.
According to officials the dead man has instead been identified as a follower
of Noordin, known only as Ibrohim, who had worked as a florist at the JW
Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels that were attacked by suicide bombers on July
17.
Eddy Saparwoko, head of the national police victim identification unit, said
tests comparing the dead man's DNA and that of Noordin's relatives had returned
negative.
"The DNA test didn't match with Noordin's family," he told a televised press
conference on Wednesday.
In depth
Who is Noordin Md Top?
Videos:
Indonesia police in shootout
Witness to Jakarta bombing
Jakarta blast caught on tape
Timeline: Indonesia bombings
Indonesia's war on Jemaah Islamiyah
Survivors describe blast panic
Earlier reports said Noordin may have been killed during a 16-hour siege with
Indonesian anti-terrorism forces at a farmhouse in central Java last Saturday.
According to police Noordin is believed to head an ultra-violent splinter-cell
of the Jemaah Islamiyah group, and is the prime suspect in the July bombings.
The twin attacks killed at least nine people and injured more than 50 others.
Noordin has been on the run for years and has a bounty of more than $100,000 on
his head for his alleged role in a series of deadly attacks including the Bali
bombings in 2002 and 2005.
Announcing the results of the DNA tests on Wednesday, police also released
security camera footage that they said showed Ibrohim working at Marriott hotel
for at least two years before the July attacks.
Nanan Sukarna, the national police chief, said Ibrohim had worked as "a planner
and arranger of the bombings" and that five other suspects in the blasts remain
at large, including Noordin.
Explosives
Noordin Md Top is high on Indonesia's wanted list over a series of deadly
bombings [AFP]
He said Ibrohim began scouting the targets three months in advance and smuggled
explosives in through a basement cargo dock a day before the strikes.
The grainy images show a lone man driving a small pick-up truck into the hotel
and unloading what police said were three containers of explosives, apparently
after skirting all security checks.
Ibrohim was also seen in the video leading the suicide bombers through the
hotels on July 8, apparently in a rehearsal for the attacks plotted from two
rented safe houses on the outskirts of the capital.
"We know him," Allan Orlob, head of security for the two luxury hotels, told
The Associated Press on Wednesday. "He worked as a third-party florist."
Orlob said Ibrohim resigned the morning of the bombings and left only a letter
asking for part of his last salary to be used to repay several people who
loaned him money.
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