Terrorist suspects targeted independence day ceremony: Police


The National Police has revealed that terrorist suspects in its custody planned to assassinate President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and other high-ranking officials during an independence day ceremony at the State Palace scheduled for Aug. 17, and then immediately declare the nation a sharia state.

"Testimonies from the suspects and seized evidence disclosed that they had chosen that option to assassinate the President," National Police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri said at a press conference Friday.

He said terrorists planned to announce publicly that Indonesia was no longer a democratic state and would became a Sharia nation immediately after the President was killed.

Bambang said the alleged terrorists had decided to attack the President at his palace on that day after learning that his personal security guards would not be carrying live rounds in their firearms.

So far this year, the police's antiterrorist task force, called Detachment 88, has killed 13 terrorist suspects and arrested 52 others.

The latest in these raids saw the police arrest three suspects at a battery shop in Sukoharjo, Central Java.