Jakarta (AsiaNews) - Indonesian security forces have arrested Mohamad Jibril, who is suspected of having masterminded the massacres in Marriott and Ritz Carlton Hotel on 17 July in Jakarta. The arrest was carried out yesterday while the man - also known as Muhamad Ricky Ardhan - was travelling to the house of his father in Pamulang in the regency of South Tangerang, a suburb of the capital.  

 

 

Police spokesman, inspector Sukarnan Nanan, has not clarified the details of the arrest, carried out by an unidentified commando. "We are awaiting further details about the operation – he added - before we can talk to the press."  

 

 

 

Jibril is director of an information portal Arahman.com, a point of reference for the local Islamic community. He apparently has two birth certificates, which bear different places and times. According to the first he was born in the province of South Borneo December 3, 1979, in the second he was born in East Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara province, on 28 May 1989. The police spokesman added that "he is suspected of collecting funds from abroad" to finance the Islamic extremist movement.  

 

 

Last July it was the site Arahman.com that published the vindication of the attacks on hotels in the capital, behind which there is the hand of the Malaysian terrorist Noordin Moh Top. Fachri Mohamad, one of the closest collaborators of Jibril, denies any wrongdoing, insisting that it is "an baseless accusation to say that it is Jibril behind the bombings”. He adds that the arrest was "an attempt to politicize Islam" and stop the "propaganda via the internet" of faith.  

 

 

There have been contrasting reactions to the news of  Jibril’s arrest among Indonesian Muslims. The moderate wing - which includes religious minorities - has distanced itself from the fundamentalist propaganda website and its sectarian and extremist line that protects the jihadis in their fight against the enemies of Islam. Others, however, regard as unfounded the accusations and appreciate the news spread by Arahman.com.

 

 

Fauzan Al-Anshari, ex responsabile dell’Indonesian Mujahidin Council, bolla l’arresto come “azione ridicola” e rivela presunti debiti che graverebbero sulla gestione del sito di informazione. Tale fatto che contrasta con quanto asserito dalla polizia, secondo la quale il sito e il suo direttore sono uno dei crocevia per finanziare il Jihad in Indonesia.

 

Investigators have also revealed the name of a Saudi citizen, accused of funding the bomb attacks in Jakarta. This is Mohammad Ali Abdillah, who has lived for a time in a city of the province of West Java, the same city where Ibrohim Boim, or the "florist", the perpetrator of the attacks on the hotels, was born. The funds arrived in Indonesia in June, through the Middle East.