Embassy Bombers Moved to Prevent Escape

Two militants on death row for the September 2004 car bombing at the Australian Embassy compound in Jakarta were transferred to a maximum security prison on Thursday after police discovered a plot to attack Cipinang Penitentiary and free the terrorists, an intelligence expert said. The transfer was also made amid concerns that the inmates, Iwan Darmawan Muntho, alias Rois, and Achmad Hasan, were able to communicate with fellow militants in Aceh using cellphones from inside their cells in the state penitentiary in East Jakarta. They have been transferred to the prison island of Nusakambangan in Central Java. “Police have uncovered a plot by a group of militants who were recently caught holding paramilitary training activities in Aceh. Their objective was to free Rois and Hasan by force,” Dynno Cresbon, a renowned intelligence analyst, told the Jakarta Globe.

“A series of operations that started in Aceh in February revealed key information that included contact between Rois and the group regarding the plot. So Thursday’s transfer was not carried out hastily. Police have been preparing for it for weeks,” Dynno said, adding that he obtained the information from a source at the police antiterror unit Densus 88. If the plot had materialized, the planned attack could trigger the use of a new terror method, with prisons targeted instead of hotels or tourist venues.