Jakarta, July 01: A leading Bali bomb suspect whose arrest was announced this week had contacted other top suspects several times while he was on the run, Indonesian police said today.
Police yesterday announced the arrest of a man called Idris and said he was planning more attacks when he was caught last month.
They describe him as Deputy Field-Commander of the terror attack that killed 202 people from 21 countries last October on the Indonesian Resort Island.
Mangku Pastika, who headed the Bali probe, told reporters today that Idris contacted two other key fugitives, Doctor Azahari and Nurdin Mohammad "several times" during his flight from justice. Azahari, a Malaysian, was one of the bomb makers and Nurdin, a financier of the blasts, blamed it on the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) a regional terror group. JI in turn is believed linked to Al-Qaeda.

Police say JI waged the attacks on western holiday makers crowded into two nightspots in revenge for perceived injustices to Muslims worldwide.

Pastika said “Idris has been questioned as a witness in the case of Imam Samudra, Ali Gufron and others and in the near future he will be questioned as a suspect".

Samudra, who is already on trial, was allegedly Field Commander of the Bali attack. Ali Ghufron, better known as Mukhlas, is also on trial. As JI's operations chief, he is said to have authorised the bombings.

Bureau Report