Jemaah Islamiah military leader Aris Sumarsono arrested in Indonesia after 17 years on the run

Name: Indonesian Islamic State returnees from Syria pose safety concerns at home
Uploaded: 2020-12-12T15:15:58.000Z
Duration: 1 min 56 s
Description: Indonesian Islamic State returnees from Syria pose safety concerns at home

The biologist, also known as Zulkarnaen, was arrested in a raid at a house in East Lampung district on Sumatra island

He is suspected of being involved in the making of bombs used in a series of attacks, including the 2002 Bali blasts that killed 202 people

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Jemaah Islamiah’s military leader was arrested by Indonesia’s counterterrorism police in East Lampung district on Sumatra island. File photo: AP

Associated Press

Published: 11:15pm, 12 Dec 2020Updated: 11:15pm, 12 Dec 2020

Indonesian police have arrested a man believed to be the military leader of the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah network who has eluded capture since 2003, authorities said on Saturday.

Aris Sumarsono, known as Zulkarnaen, was arrested late Thursday by counterterrorism police without resistance in a raid at a house in East Lampung district on Sumatra island, said National Police spokesperson Ahmad Ramadhan.

Zulkarnaen is suspected of being involved in the making of bombs used in a series of attacks, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, and a 2003 attack on the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, that killed 12, Ramadhan said.

He said Zulkarnaen, a biologist who was among the first Indonesian militants to go to Afghanistan for training, is also accused of harbouring Upik Lawanga, another bomb maker and a key Jemaah Islamiah member.

Lawanga was arrested by counterterrorism police in Lampung last week. He had eluded capture since 2005 after being named as a suspect in an attack that killed more than 20 people at a market in Poso, known as a hotbed of Islamic militancy on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island.

“He is in custody and being questioned by investigators,” Ramadhan said of Zulkarnaen, adding that police are still conducting an investigation at his house in Lampung.

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Indonesian Islamic State returnees from Syria pose safety concerns at home

Police said they were tipped off to Zulkarnaen’s location in raids after interrogating several suspected militants arrested late last month.