T

he police named Frederic C. Jean Salvi, a French national, as the foreign terrorist suspect connected to a group allegedly planning a car bomb attack, the nation’s top detective said Wednesday.

According to the police, Salvi bought a car that was intended to be made into a car bomb by a terrorist group that was recently broken-up in a series of raids throughout
West Java.

“The French embassy has confirmed that this man is Frederic C. Jean Salvi. This man has also been targeted by Interpol for crimes he previously committed at home,” chief detective Comr. Gen. Ito Sumardi told journalists on Wednesday.

Salvi was born in Pontarlier, France and had lived in Bandung for around three years to study Islam at an Islamic boarding school, he said, adding that Salvi had joined the Jihadi Salafi, an international hard-line organization.

Ito said the police had been cooperating with Interpol to pursue Salvi, who is now believed to have escaped to Morocco with his Moroccan wife to elude Indonesian police.

“I have confidence that Salvi still in this country. Therefore we are intensifying the manhunt,” he added.

Intelligence expert Dynno Chressbon said Salvi was a well-established player in terrorism who first emerged during the 2004 Indonesian embassy bombing in Paris. “Salvi orchestrated the bombing in cooperation with Indonesian terrorist supporters there,” he said.

He added that Salvi had long shared common ground with radical cleric Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, according to intelligence reports.

“Salvi has long been known as a die-hard Ba’asyir supporter. The 2004 Indonesian Embassy bombing was an act of solidarity with Ba’asyir,” he said.

In Oct. 8, 2004, a bomb exploded at the Indonesian Embassy in Paris. Ten people, mostly Indonesian embassy employees, were severely injured in the blast. At the same time, Ba’asyir was under police questioning in Indonesia over allegations that he was connected to other bomb attacks.

He added that Salvi was first introduced to Ba’asyir by Al Ghuroba activists in Europe and several other countries, such as Pakistan and Afghanistan. Al Ghuroba has claimed to be a study club for Indonesian students in Pakistan, Afghanistan and several other Arabic countries.

Al Ghuroba had been transformed from a study club into a group supporting jihad, according to Hambali, who was arrested by US law enforcement officials in Bangkok in connection with the bomb attack that killed 17 sailors on the USS Cole, a US Navy warship, in Yemen in 2000.

Hambali frequently sent Indonesian students to military camps in Peshawar to support the jihadist struggle, as previously reported.

Ba’asyir’s son Abdul Rochim and Abu Jibriel’s eldest son, Muhammad Jibriel Abdulrahman, are alumni of the Al Ghuroba group.

Achmad Michdan, one of Ba’asyir’s attorneys, denied his client knew Frederic.

“The police’s suspicions are ridiculous. My client has never known any man by that name,” he said as quoted by detik.com on Tuesday.

Ba’asyir has been detained by the National Police in connection with allegations that the firebrand cleric was involved with an Aceh-based paramilitary training camp that was raided by the police earlier this year.