POLICE RELEASE OWNER OF TEMANGGUNG HOUSE WHERE IBROHIM HID

Jakarta, Aug 14 (ANTARA) - Police said here Friday they have released Muhjari, the owner of the house in Temanggung, Central Java, where terror suspect Ibrohim was killed in a raid recently.

"Muhjari has been released because he proved not to have deliberately sheltered terror suspect Ibrohim," the deputy head of the National Police Headquarters' public relations division, Brigadier General Sulistyo Ishak, said.

He said, after examining Muhjari during the past seven days, police investigators concluded his house was not a terrorist safe house although Ibrohim was found there.

"Muhjari did not know about Ibrohim staying there," he said.

Sulistyo said the police would compensate Muhjari for the damage done to his house during the raid in which Ibrohim was eventually killed.

Muhjari was arrested last Friday afternoon after returning home from his rice field.

His nephews, Aris and Indra, meanwhile were arrested at their repair service kiosk in Parakan, Temanggung.

Police besieged Muhjari's house after receiving information that several terrorist suspects were staying there.

The 18-hour siege around Muhjari's house was marked by exchanges of fire between anti-terror police and Ibrohim, and ended after the terror suspect was found dead in the house's bathroom.

National Police Chief General Bambang Hendarso Danuri said the seige had last that long because the police wanted to give Ibrohim an opportunity to surrender.

He said the police also wished to follow standard operating procedures which did not allow operations to be conducted at night.

"The police came to the house at 5pm. It is impossible to make an arrest at night. This was a procedure that had to be followed," he said.

He said the police had also purposely aimed their fire at the house's walls rather than at a body to give the terror suspect a chance to survive the raid.

"The shots were directed at walls to pressure him to give up and surrender," he said.

But as nobody emerged from the house until early in the morning, police finally fired barrages of shots at the house in which Ibrohim was fatally hit.

"So the operation only started at 7 am and was declared finished at 11 am," he said.

At night the police did not conduct an offensive but only stayed on guard to prevent the target from escaping, he said.

He said the police had held Aris and Indra as suspects because they had hidden Ibrohim.

The two are now being held at the Mobile Police Brigade headquarters' detention center in Kelapa Dua, Depok, West Java.

Ibrohim was known as a field operator as well as the one who had brought bombs into the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels.

The bombings at the two hotels on July 17 left nine people dead including the two suicide bombers and more than 50 others wounded.