JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - The father-in-law of slain Malaysian terror leader Noordin Mohammed Top was arrested Thursday during a raid in West Java, Indonesian police said. The head of the Detachment 88 counter-terror squad, Tito Karnavian, said that Noordin’s accomplice Baharudin Latif was arrested early morning in the West Java district of South Garut after months on the run.
“It’s true that he was arrested at 5:00 am (2200 GMT on Wednesday) during a police raid in South Garut,” he told AFP by phone. Baharudin Latif, alias Baridin, escaped from a police raid in July on his home in Cilacap, Central Java. Police said they found bomb-making materials buried in the yard.
Karnavian said his team was still in South Garut to see “if there are any explosive materials on site”. According to the International Crisis Group think-tank, Noordin married Baharudin’s daughter Arina Rahmah in 2006 and the couple had two children.
Noordin, who was killed in a bloody raid by police in September in Central Java, is believed to have masterminded the July suicide bombings of Jakarta’s JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels. Seven people were killed.
The 41-year old Malaysian was also blamed for a 2003 attack on the Marriott that killed 12 people, as well as the 2004 bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta and 2005 attacks on tourist restaurants on Bali.
