National

Hasan Tiro Not to Be Extradited
Friday, 18 June, 2004 | 07:14 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:The Swedish government has confirmed that it will not deport Free Aceh Movement (GAM) top leader Hasan Tiro and two other GAM leaders, Malik Mahmud and Zaini Abdullah, to Indonesia because Tiro and Abdullah are Swedish citizens and Mahmud is a Singaporean citizen.

Swedish Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lars Lundberg told Tempo News Room this on Wednesday (16/06).

A joint team from the Stockholm Prosecutors’ Office and Swedish Police arrested Tiro, Mahmud and Abdullah on Tuesday afternoon (15/06).

All three were questioned as suspects in international law violation cases.

Mahmud and Abdullah were also detained while Tiro was not due to his health.

Indonesian Ad interim Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Hari Sabarno said in Jakarta that the extradition process of the three suspects required talks, including with the Government of Singapore, where Mahmud comes from.

According to Sabarno, the Singaporean government must have similar interests as the Indonesian government because its citizen Mahmud is still involved in a legal process related to bombing cases in Indonesia.

Stockholm Prosecutors’ Office head Tomas Lindstrand on Wednesday (16/06) requested an extension of Mahmud and Abdullah’s detention for two weeks.

According to Indonesian government’s lawyer, Anders Karlstrom, the Swedish judge will decide whether or not this request shall be granted.

According to Swedish regulations, all suspects can only be detained for three days.

According to Karlstrom, during the search of the suspects’ houses, the police also confiscated several documents and computers.

Soon after this, he said, Mahmud and Abdullah were arrested and placed in different cells.

Karlstrom stated that Mahmud and Abdullah were questioned on Wednesday (16/06) while Tiro was to be questioned on Thursday (17/06).

According to Karlstrom, the questions posed by Swedish investigators are related to whether or not there is any relation between GAM leaders in Sweden and acts of terrorism in Indonesia.

(Faisal/Yandhrie/Pradityo/Cahyo/Sunariah-Tempo News Room)