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.