The terror suspects arrested during a raid in Central Java, Indonesia not only planned to bomb the the Danish Embassy, but also to bomb the Indonesian Police Anniversary Day Celebrations on July 1st. And the Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish embassies were also in danger, as they have offices in the same building as the Danish Embassy.
The head of the Indonesian anti-terror squad Densus 88 Inspector General Tito Karnavian said the police got the information from the country’s most wanted fugitive and terror suspect Abdullah Sonata and his accomplice Sogir.
“We are sure that they chose the police as the target as revenge for a terror raid in Aceh and they wanted to bomb the Danish Embassy because of the Prophet Mohammad’s caricature fiasco,” Tito told the Jakarta Globe on Thursday.
Danish reactions
The Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Lene Esperesen said that the information on the terror plans was worrying:
“It is worrying, and we are investigating it through all channels,” she said to jp.dk on Thursday.
“Now we’ll determine which initiatives are needed. Yet we don’t have the complete overview. But it is always disturbing when Denmark and Danish embassies are mentioned,” said the Danish Foreign Minister.
The Danish ambassador to Indonesia Børge Petersen first heard about the terror plans in local media on Thursday. Since then he has been in contact with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Denmark.
The ambassador tells jp.dk that he doesn’t know more than he has read in the media. And he has no knowledge of threats against the embassy in the two years he has been in Jakarta.
“During the two years that I have been here we haven’t had any reason to be insecure at the embassy,” says Ambassador Børge Petersen who at the moment is together with a business delegation in Surabaya in Java.
Confessed planned police shootings
Abdullah Sonata and Sogir confessed that they ordered Yuli Karseno, the terror suspect who was shot dead in Klaten on Wednesday, to shoot two policemen in Purworejo and one policeman in Kebuman, Central Java.
“The reason for the shooting was because the suspects felt police were encroaching upon their military exercise in Aceh,” General Tito Karnavian said to the Jakarta Globe.
Former bomb-making student
Sogir acted as the planner for the attempted embassy bombing. Police found various bomb-making instruments such as adapters, a welder and electronic components to make the bomb switch. Wahyu Widodo, the head of the Indonesian antibomb squad, also known as Gegana, said that Sogiri had learned about bomb making from slain terror mastermind Azahari Husin.
“It is confirmed that Sogiri made the bomb switch because he is one of Azahari’s student. There is a striking similarity between his home-made device and ones used in previous bombings,” Wahyu said to the Jakarta Globe.
Sonata and Sogiri will be flown to Jakarta later on Thursday.
Indonesian hotspot
The Danish embassy has earlier been close to terror attacks in Indonesia. The building, where the Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish and Danish embassies all have their offices, is close to Marriott Hotel, which in 2003 was target for a car bombing which killed 12 and injured 150 people. In connection to the publishing of the caricatures of Prophet Muhammed in 2006 there was demonstrations in front of the Danish embassy, writes jp.dk
According to ScandAsia, who reported at the time from Jakarta, those demonstrations were, however, not very threatening.
Read more
Terror Suspect Abdullah Sonata Planned to Bomb Danish Embassy in Jakarta – Jakarta Globe
Terrorplaner mod dansk ambassade – jp.dk
Indonesia’s top terror suspect behind bars – Channel News Asia
