Police to confront Ba'asyir with Samudra<\/p>\n
Wahyoe Boediwardhana
\nThe Jakarta Post
\nDenpasar, Bali<\/p>\n
Police plan to confront Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir with
\nAbdul Azis, alias Imam Samudra, and other key suspects in the
\nBali bombing as they seek to confirm the suspects' claims about
\nBa'asyir's involvement in the country's worst terrorist attack.<\/p>\n
The head of the team investigating the Bali bombing, Insp.
\nGen. I Made Mangku Pastika, said the meetings would take place
\naround mid-February.<\/p>\n
"We are still at the stage of examining (this alleged
\nconnection). So we will cross-check the suspects' statements ...
\nthen link them with the facts we know," Pastika said.<\/p>\n
Ba'asyir leads the Ngukri Islamic boarding school in Solo,
\nCentral Java. He is also the alleged spiritual leader of Jamaah
\nIslamiyah (JI), an underground organization the United Nations
\nlabeled a terrorist group following the Oct. 12 Bali bombings.<\/p>\n
For months, however, police have denied that Ba'asyir was
\nlinked to the bombing, until last week.<\/p>\n
National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said last week that
\nBa'asyir gave his blessing to the terrorist attack, and suspects
\nclaimed that the Muslim cleric knew much about the operation.<\/p>\n
But police said it was still too early to name Ba'asyir a
\nsuspect in the attack.<\/p>\n
Police arrested Ba'asyir late last year for his alleged role
\nin a string of church bombings in 2000 and a plot to assassinate
\nPresident Megawati Soekarnoputri when she was still vice
\npresident.<\/p>\n
For now, police only have the suspects' statements linking
\nBa'asyir to the Bali bombings, Pastika said, adding that
\ninvestigators were looking for other evidence.<\/p>\n
The four key suspects in the bombings, Amrozi, his brother Ali
\nGufron, alias Mukhlas, Ali Imron and Imam Samudra, said they met
\nwith Ba'asyir at the Ngukri boarding school last May and July,
\nand several days after the bombings in October.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a visiting team from the Malaysian police
\nquestioned four key suspects in the Bali bombings to cross-check
\ninformation from a Malaysian suspect on the flow of funds to
\nfinance the Oct. 12 terrorist attack, an Indonesian Police
\nofficer said on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The three Malaysian police officers arrived on Saturday to
\ncross-check statements by Wan Min bin Wan Mat, one of several
\nMalaysian suspects named in connection with the Bali case, said
\nBali Police chief Sr. Comr. Eddy Kusumawijaya.<\/p>\n
"It was not an interrogation but part of connecting statements
\nprovided by suspects in Malaysia, like Wan Min, with these Bali
\nblast suspects," he said.<\/p>\n
Police believe that JI funded the terrorist attack, which
\nkilled over 190 people, mainly foreign tourists.<\/p>\n
But different suspects have claimed that different amounts of
\nmoney were used for the operation.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for the Bali investigation team, Sr. Comr. Zainuri
\nLubis, said Wan Min claimed to have given US$35,500 to Mukhlas.<\/p>\n
However, Mukhlas said he received $500 less than that amount.<\/p>\n
Also, according to Malaysian news reports, Wan Min confessed
\nto handing over $95,000 to Samudra when they met in Pattani,
\nThailand, early in 2002.<\/p>\n
But this was disputed by Samudra, who said earlier, "I don't
\nknow, money isn't my business."<\/p>\n
Bali Police chief Eddy refused to discuss the results of the
\nmeeting between the Malaysian police officers and the four
\nsuspects.<\/p>\n
Their arrival followed a visit to Malaysia by a team of
\nIndonesian officers to question Wan Min over the alleged flow of
\nmoney from JI.<\/p>",
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