Indonesia police arrest 2002 Bali bombing suspect

JAKARTA, Indonesia—Indonesian police said Tuesday they have arrested a suspected terrorist sought since 2002 for his role in the Bali bombing that killed 202 people.

National police spokesman Brigadier General Anton Bachrul Alam said that Heru Kuncoro was captured June 9 in Pekalongan, a town in central Java.

He is among the 16 people arrested in recent days on suspicion of plotting cyanide attacks against police.

Extremists in Indonesia have increasingly targeted police in the past year or so as an ongoing security crackdown has disrupted terrorists’ ability to launch large-scale attacks.

One of those arrested in the cyanide raids, Budi Untung Wisesa, died during interrogation and police said an autopsy showed he died from a heart attack. Local media quoted relatives saying they had found a wound on Wisesa’s head.

Police say Kuncoro was a facilitator who purchased electronic equipment for the 2002 bombing on the tourist island that killed mainly foreigners.

He fled to the Philippines in 2003 with Dulmatin, an alleged mastermind of the Bali bombing who was killed in an Indonesian police raid last year.

The pair teamed up with Umar Patek, another Bali bombing suspect, to run a jihadi training camp in the southern Philippines. Patek was arrested in Pakistan in January.

Two of the arrested men, identified only as Faisal and Juarni, were believed to be couriers for Dulmatin and Patek and helped to smuggle weapons from the Philippines to Indonesia, Alam said.

He said the two were involved in terrorist attacks against police in Palu last month and an April suicide bombing in Cirebon in West Java that wounded 30 in a mosque packed with police.