Jakarta blast suspect confirmed Malaysian
Local authorities had verified the authenticity of the man's identity card found by Jakarta police, Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar was quoted as saying by the Bernama news agency.
The 26-year-old suspect was identified as Taufik Abdul Halim, who is from Johor and is an architecture graduate from Universiti Teknologi Mara.
Jakarta police detained Taufik after he was injured, along with four others, in the August 1 bombing of the Atrium mall in central Jakarta.
Hospital officials at the time said Taufik, whose leg was amputated, claimed to be a resident of South Jakarta but did not specify his nationality.
"He is now under custody of Indonesian authorities and is subjected to Indonesian laws. Indonesia has the legal right to take any further action," Syed Hamid said.
He said Taufik and nine others were part of a group waging a 'jihad' in Indonesia and were believed to be planning similar activities in Malaysia upon returning home.
Local links
It was unclear if the rest of the group members were also Malaysians.
"This group is religiously fanatical. They went there to wage jihad and for the government this is not right according to the law and to Islam," Syed Hamid added.
The police earlier this month detained 10 Islamic activists, including seven members of the opposition PAS, on suspicion of being part of an Afghan-inspired militant group waging jihad here.
The 10, detained under the Internal Security Act which allows for indefinite detention without trial, included the Kelantan mentri besar and PAS spiritual leader Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat's son Nik Adli, who was named as the suspected ringleader.
Police in June detained nine members of the group allegedly linked to a spate of crimes including robbery, the murder of a politician and the bombings of a church and an Indian temple.
Earlier, Jakarta police spokesman Anton Bachrul Alam told AFP that "several documents indicate that the man is a Malaysian. We are looking into the case further". He declined to elaborate.
