Ba'asyir faces suspect status

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Police officially declared on Wednesday that the alleged spiritual leader of Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) Abubakar Ba'asyir was involved in the Oct. 12 Bali bombing and may soon be named a suspect.

The police claim they have found early indications of Ba'asyir's involvement in the Bali bombing and are building up a case to declare him a suspect, said spokesman for the police investigating team Sr. Comr. Zainuri Lubis.

He said information obtained from detained Bali bomb suspects had revealed Ba'asyir's involvement. Zainuri said the JI spiritual leader knew about the plot but added there was more evidence linking him to the bombing.

So far the police have only said that Ba'asyir had precise knowledge of the bombing and had given his blessing to the terror operation.

Zainuri said Ba'asyir also held meetings with some or all of the Bali bomb key suspects, Amrozi, Mukhlas, Ali Imron and Abdul Azis alias Imam Samudra. They claimed to have met Ba'asyir after the bombing to report the operation, which claimed more than 190 lives, mostly foreign tourists.

But Zainuri declined to say to what extend Ba'asyir was involved in the bombing or whether he had taken an active role in it.

"We'll disclose the evidence once Ba'asyir has officially been named a suspect in the Bali bombing case," he said.

Zainuri said the team's priority was to finalize the dossiers of Amrozi and Samudra so they could be brought to trial next month.

Investigators were also preoccupied with hunting 10 more suspects, including three Malaysian nationals and Dulmatin, the alleged assembler of the bombs.

Ba'asyir is currently under police detention for his alleged role in a string of church bombings on Christmas Eve in 2000.

He is also being detained over suspicion that he planned to assassinate President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Zainuri said Ba'asyir status as a suspect would likely have to wait until he had been tried for the above charges.

Ba'asyir who leads the Al Mukmin Islamic boarding school in Ngruki, Central Java, has denied any wrongdoing or knowledge of JI and its operations. He also denied charges he was involved in the Bali bombing.

The police's decision to officially link the Muslim cleric to the Bali bombing increases the likelihood of the Bali terrorist strike being the work of an organized group rather than a collection of individuals as has been the picture so far.

Included in the United Nations list of terrorist groups, JI is believed to be fighting for a Pan-Southeast Asian Islamic State.

It operates on a regional scale with bases reportedly also in Singapore and Malaysia.

JI's largely clandestine nature has made it difficult for investigators to uncover its network here and to establish a link between it and Bali. Until Tuesday, police have refrained from making that connection. Suspects who were members or had ties to the organization and the naming of three Malaysians suspects had been the only signs of a possible JI involvement.

But in an unexpected announcement, National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said on Tuesday that the Bali bombing had received Ba'asyir's blessing.