Indonesian Police arrest suspected terrorist behind 2009 Ritz-Carlton and Marriott Hotel bombings
Indonesian police have arrested the man they claim is responsible for the 2009 hotel bombings that claimed three Australian lives.
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Indonesian police have arrested a man they claim built the explosives used in the deadly 2009 twin suicide bombings of Jakarta’s Ritz-Carlton and Marriott hotels.
Police believe that Taufik Bulaga – AKA Upik Lawanga – is attached to the powerful terror organisation Jemaah Islamiah (JI).
JI was also behind the horrific 2002 Bali bomb that killed 202 people.
The Ritz Carlton and JW Marriott hotel attacks in south Jakarta claimed nine lives, among them three Australians.
Lawanga, who was picked up in Sumatra, allegedly trained under the tutelage of technical mastermind jihadi Dr Azahari bin Husin – who was killed by the elite Indonesian anti-terrorist squad Densus 88 during a raid on a house in Java in 2005 following a battle where grenades were hurled at police.
JI was previously linked with both al-Qaida and the Islamic State and aims to unite Indonesia, Malaysia and the southern Philippines as a combined sovereign Islamic state.
Considered an important JI asset, Lawanga had been wanted in Indonesia since 2006 for terrorism charges related to three other bombings and murders in Sulawesi in 2004, a further three attacks 2005, plus two additional bombings in 2006.
It is claimed he was apprenticed to Azahari when he allegedly created the Marriott and St Regis explosives.
He now faces the death penalty if found guilty of the charges.
Indonesia’s anti-terrorist squad Densus 88 also detained a further 24 alleged members of JI during October and November, including six alleged funders of terror organisation.
“Lawanga was ordered by Jemaah Islamiah to go to Java to learn to make powerful explosive bombs from doctor Azahari. So, he is the successor of Dr Azahari and a highly regarded resource to JI. The JI group has always protected and hid him by moving him around Indonesia,” said Indonesian national police spokesman Mr Awi Setiyono.
Jemaah Islamiah is a banned organisation that has the strength of a military operation in Indonesia and it is responsible for a series of attacks including the 2000 high-scale assault on five Christian churches in Jakarta and eight other cities, supported by the now defunct Al Qaeda.
Evidence seized during the raid includes weapons and ammunition as well as a two-metre bunker built at the rented house.
Originally published as Indonesian Police arrest suspected terrorist behind 2009 Ritz-Carlton and Marriott Hotel bombings
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