Ba'asyir was in charge of JI: Suspect

Ba'asyir was in charge of JI: Suspect

Associated Press, Perth, Australia

A British-born terror suspect told Australian federal police that Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir was in charge of Southeast Asian terror group Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), a court heard on Monday.

Jack Roche, who is on trial here for plotting to blow up the Israeli Embassy in Canberra, told Australian Federal Police that Ba'asyir, who currently is in detention in Indonesia, was in charge of JI. Ba'asyir previously has denied the allegation.

"Ultimately, he's the one who makes decisions regarding the structure of JI in Southeast Asia," Roche said in videotaped interviews with police, excerpts of which were shown in Perth District Court on Monday.

Ba'asyir, 66, was re-arrested in April on the day he finished serving an 18-month prison term for minor immigration offenses.

Police in Indonesia say they have new evidence to prove he is the leader of JI. They said the cleric approved a string of terror attacks that included the Bali bombings that killed 202 people in October 2002.

Ba'asyir has always denied being the leader of JI, and says he has no links to terrorism.

Roche, 50, from Hull in northern England, has pleaded innocent in the Canberra terror plot. He faces a maximum 25-year sentence if convicted of plotting to blow up the Israeli embassy. The bombing was never carried out.

Last week, prosecutors said he'd discussed the plot with senior al-Qaeda and JI operatives -- and even found himself sitting opposite Osama bin Laden once while in Afghanistan.

Roche, who changed his name from Paul George Holland around the end of 2001, was allegedly in Afghanistan to undergo explosives training.

Prosecutors last week also claimed that JI's alleged operations chief, Hambali, gave him US$80,000 to carry out an attack.

Roche told federal police interrogators that he believed Hambali was below Bashir in the JI hierarchy.

"I believe he was under Abu Bakar Ba'asyir," Roche said in excerpts of the taped interrogation shown on Monday in court. "I believe he (Hambali) was in charge of what went on structurally in JI in Malaysia."

In notes seized by police and read last week in court, Roche wrote that Hambali, the alleged mastermind of the Bali bombings, was interested in "doing something" at the Sydney Olympics. The notes did not elaborate.