Police: Indonesian Student Linked to Jakarta Hotel Bombers Surrenders

JAKARTA, Indonesia – An Indonesian student suspected of helping to hide the assailants responsible for twin hotel bombings in Jakarta has surrendered, police said Wednesday.

Ahfam Ramadan handed himself over at a police station in eastern Jakarta, national police spokesman Nanan Soekarna said.

He did not say when Ramadan surrendered, but local media reports said it occurred Monday.

Soekarna described Ramadan, 23, as one of three students at a state-run Islamic university who joined a discussion group led by Syaiffudin Zuhri, who was killed in an anti-terror raid last week along with his brother Mohamad Syahrir. Ramadan is suspected of raising money to hide the two brothers.

The slain brothers were key members of a terrorist cell led by the late regional al-Qaida commander Noordin Top, and were wanted in connection with July 17 suicide blasts at the J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta that killed seven people and wounded more than 50.

The two other students — Fajar Firdaus and Sonny Jayadi — were arrested earlier. Firdaus, a relative of the slain brothers, was arrested prior to the raid, and Jayadi was detained Saturday in West Sumatra where he was helping victims of a Sept. 30 earthquake that killed at least 1,115 people.