No Definite Evidence Linking Bali bombing to JI: Official

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, November 09, 2002

No Definite Evidence Linking Bali bombing to JI: Official

There is no definite evidence so far linking the Bali bombing to the militant group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) although there are indications of JI's involvement, an Indonesian official said Friday.

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There is no definite evidence so far linking the Bali bombing to the militant group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) although there are indications of JI's involvement, an Indonesian official said Friday.

"Up to now, there is no definite connection based on evidence between the Bali bombing and the JI," said Made Mangku Pastika, deputy chief of Criminal Investigation Division of the Indonesian National Police.

"We are gathering physical evidence from the crime scene because we can't count solely on analysis. Sometimes analysis looks logic, but it may not be true," he told a press conference.

Pastika, who is in charge of the investigation of the Oct. 12 bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali that killed almost 200 people, came here to attend the two-day International Conference on Anti-Terrorism and Tourism Recovery, which opened Friday.

Pastika said one prime suspect arrested on Tuesday "told us thenames of other suspects, everything." The suspect, identified as Amrozi, has confessed all the activities they had been doing untilthe Oct. 12 Bali bombing, he said.

So far the Indonesian authorities cannot link these activities to the JI, but there are indications that an Islamic school where Amrozi stayed with his friends and brothers was visited by Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged JI spiritual leader, six months ago, he said.

Bashir was arrested recently for his alleged involvement in a series bombings three years ago, but he has not been named as a suspect in the Bali attack.

According to Amrozi's confession, he had worked in Malaysia andwas one of the students of Bashir, Pastika said.

He said Amrozi used Singapore dollars and Malaysian ringgit to buy a Mitsubishi vehicle, which was laden with explosives that blew up outside a packed nightclub on Bali.

Amrozi may plan to flee to the Philippines before his arrest aspolice found in his house in Bali two one-way tickets to Manado, capital of Indonesia's Northern Sulawesi province, which is very close to the southern Philippines, Pastika said.

He also disclosed that Amrozi's wife is from the same village as Fathur al-Ghozi, an alleged JI bomb expert who has been convicted for illegal possession of explosives in the Philippines.

Al-Ghozi, also an Indonesian, was arrested in Manila early thisyear after the Philippine police received tips from Singapore.

"Maybe after we arrest some other suspects, we'll then find outwhether there is direct connection between the Bali incident and the JI," he said.

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