Abu Rusdan admits chairing JI

JAKARTA: Defendant Abu Rusdan admitted on Wednesday he was the caretaker head of the regional terrorist network Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), but said his aim was to dissuade members from violence.

Rusdan, on trial for harboring Mukhlas, one of key suspects of the deadly Bali bombings, said in his defense plea that he was asked to become the caretaker emir, or leader.

He said he initially refused to become the emir because since JI founder Abdullah Sungkar died in 1999 "I was not kept abreast with developments of the community."

He said he changed his mind after a meeting with Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, at which the cleric stressed the need for sincerity in religious duties.

Ba'asyir was jailed for four years in September for taking part in a plan to overthrow the government, but judges said there was not enough evidence to prove that he was the head of JI.

At the meeting on Oct. 17 last year, Rusdan said, he "reluctantly" accepted the caretaker leadership.

He said the position would allow him "to more effectively remind members of the community not to be dragged into violent acts which have recently been linked to members of the community."

Rusdan, 43, said Mukhlas was at that meeting "but at the time I did not know or suspect that he was involved in the Bali bombings" that killed more than 200 people, mostly foreigners.

He said he had not heard a remark attributed by prosecutors to Mukhlas -- that "the perpetrators of the Bali bombings were us."

Prosecutors say Rusdan first met Mukhlas in Afghanistan in 1987 when both were fighting the Soviet occupation.

Defense lawyers called for the charges to be dropped, saying the South Jakarta court had no jurisdiction over offenses elsewhere. They described the charges as vague.

The trial was adjourned until Nov. 10, when prosecutors will respond. --AFP