Florist plotted bombings

Police spokesman Nanan Soekarna with a photo of Ibrohim, the Ritz-Carlton florist who is believed to have plotted the bombings. -- PHOTO: AFP

JAKARTA (Indonesia) - WHEN bomb blasts tore through two luxury hotels in Indonesia's capital where Andi Suhandi worked as a florist, he tried to phone a colleague to make sure he was safe.

There was no answer. Flower arranger Ibrohim Muharram went missing after the twin suicide attacks at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels on July 17 that killed seven people and wounded more than 50 others. Within days it emerged he had resigned his job the morning of the bombings.

Police on Wednesday disclosed that Ibrohim - Mr Suhandi's roommate and friend of three years, whom he described as a 'polite' man who used to give flowers to their neighbours on Valentine's Day - had smuggled in the explosives used in the bombings. He allegedly orchestrated the attacks with Southeast Asia's most wanted terrorism suspect, Noordin Muhammad Top.

Indonesian counterterrorism forces thought they killed Noordin during a 16-hour siege last weekend, but DNA results released Wednesday yielded an embarrassing finding. The body was not that of Noordin, but Ibrohim, national police spokesman Nanan Sukarna said.

The bombings, which claimed six foreign victims, shattered a four-year lull in terror attacks in the world's most populous Muslim nation and showed that militants remain a deadly threat here despite the US-backed arrests of hundreds of militant suspects.

Ibrohim, 37, a married father of four children, was 'a quiet, polite and friendly man who gave his neighbours flowers on Valentine's Day' and never openly expressed radical religious beliefs, although he had a collection of books on violent jihad, or holy war, Mr Suhandi said.

The two shared a house in Jakarta with other colleagues for nearly a year, before Ibrohim packed up his belongings and moved out nearly three months ago saying he was moving to a cheaper location, Mr Suhandi said.

When staff members talked about a 2003 bombing of the Jakarta Marriott that killed a dozen people, Mr Suhandi said he remembered Ibrohim nodding in agreement when they called it a terrible crime.

'I never imagined he could do it: planning a bombing at a hotel where we are - his friends working together with him,' said Mr Suhandi, who was on his way to work when the July 17 bombs went off as guests ate breakfast.

'How could he do something that we condemned together?' -- AP