Malaysian held over Marriott blast
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The Marriott blast killed 12 people and has been blamed on regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah.
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JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesia has arrested a Malaysian over last year's bombing of the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta but kept his detention secret, police say.
Details of the arrest of Amran bin Mansur on February 12 was kept from the public to aide investigators in their hunt for more suspects, they said.
Deputy national police spokesman Soenarko Danu Ardanto said Amran was apprehended in Central Java province and was moved about to several locations as part as for the investigation. He is currently being held in Jakarta.
He is suspected of supplying the explosives used in the August 5 suicide bombing of the Marriott, which killed 12 people and injured 150, Soenarko told reporters on Tuesday.
"We did not want to spontaneously publicize this arrest because we needed to protect the security of his information. We want to arrest more suspects," Reuters reported Soenarko as saying.
Police have now arrested 14 people in connection with the bombing. One suspect has been sentenced to 10 years in jail, while the others are awaiting trial. Most are Indonesian.
The Marriott bombing -- as well as the 2002 nightclub blasts in Bali that killed over 200 people -- have been blamed on al Qaeda's South Asian arm, Jemaah Islamiyah.
Police are still hunting for another Malaysian national, Azahari, who they accuse of heading the Marriott operation.
Officials describe Azahari as the most wanted man in Southeast Asia. They say he is a senior member of JI and a demolition and explosives expert.
