Fri, 01 Aug 2003

Bali bomb blasts witness links JI to al-Qaeda

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali

Al-Qaeda provided funds to the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) group which perpetrated the Bali bombings last October, the alleged treasurer of the regional terror organization told the Denpasar District on Thursday.

It was the most direct evidence yet linking Osama bin Laden's terror network to the attacks that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.

"I never knew for sure where JI got its operational funds from. Yet, during a conversation the defendant mentioned that the al-Qaeda organization was one of JI's financial sources," the alleged JI treasurer, Wan Min bin Wan Mat, said in his testimony during the trial of Ali Gufron alias Mukhlas on Thursday.

It was not clear, however, whether the funds that went to the JI were spent on the bombings of two packed night clubs in the tourist resort of Kuta and the United States Consular office in the Bali capital of Denpasar on Oct. 12, 2002.

The Indonesian Police have accused JI of masterminding the bombings but said it had no evidence as to whether al-Qaeda was involved in the blasts, the most devastating since the attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, which were blamed on the international terror group.

Australia, 88 of whose citizens were killed in the Bali bombings, has said al-Qaeda might be behind the attacks.

Wan Min, a former lecturer at a Malaysian technological university. was speaking via a video link from police detention in Malaysia.

The 37-year-old Malaysian national appeared on a wide screen and four television sets inside the courtroom in the Nari Graha building in Renon area.

At one point during the trial, Wan Min waved his hand and smiled at Mukhlas, who is charged with masterminding the attacks.

Wan Min confirmed that Mukhlas was a high-ranking JI official, with his latest position being the chief of JI's "Ula region", which covers Malaysia and Singapore.

"The amir (religious leader) of JI, Ustadz (teacher) Abu Bakar Ba'asyir was the person who swore in Mukhlas as a member of JI," Wan Min said, referring to the Muslim cleric now standing trial in Jakarta on treason charges.

Wan Min also said other suspects in the Bali bombings, Abdul Aziz alias Imam Samudra and Amrozi, were JI members.

There are four defendants standing trial for the attacks, with 25 more in the pipeline. They are charged under the antiterrorism law, which carries the death penalty.

Wan Min dismissed accusations that he was the JI treasurer, saying he was actually the chief of the Wakalah (sub-region) that covered Johor Baru in Malaysia.

However, he admitted that he had on three different occasions transferred cash to Mukhlas amounting to around US$35,500. Wan Min said he directly handed $15,500 in cash to Mukhlas early in April 2002 in a house in Thailand. At that time, both men were on the run from the Malaysian police, he said.

Later on, Wan Min received a letter, which contained an order from Hambali, the Indonesian police's most wanted man, to send Mukhlas more money. Through JI couriers, Wan Min sent $10,000 and later on 200,000 baht ($5,000) to Mukhlas.

"I was not involved in the funding of the operation. I only sent the money following the orders from the defendant and Hambali," Wan Min said.

The money, according to Wan Min, came from the contributions of JI members, collected by Mukhlas before the organization was banned by the Malaysian government.

During their days as fugitives in Thailand, Wan Min revealed that two JI members, Noordin and Dr Ashari, had drafted a paper outlining the future plans of the JI, including its jihad operations.

"Based on JI's strategy, the jihad operation would be carried out in Indonesia," he said.

However, Wan Min stressed that he did not know about the plan to bomb Bali, and neither had he ever heard Mukhlas talking about it. He said he only found out about the bombings when he was in Malaysian police custody.

Mukhlas denied most of Wan Min's testimony, claiming that it was filled with contradictory statements.

"I have never been sworn in by Abu Bakar Ba'asyir," he said.

Earlier in the day, the defense read out its objection to the use of a video link to hear a witness' testimony.

They also criticized the Malaysian law allowing suspects to be held without charge. Wan Min is among scores of alleged Islamic militants detained without trial in Malaysia and Singapore, who are accused of involvement in JI plots.

The trial was adjourned to Aug. 11 to hear the testimony of a team from the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI), which conducted an independent investigation into the bombings.

In a separate trial, prosecutors demanded 10 years in jail for Makmuri, one of Mukhlas' henchmen who helped him while on the run after the bomb attacks.

Meanwhile, Lamongan District Court in East Java sentenced Sumarno, the nephew of Bali bombing suspect Amrozi, to three years and six months in jail for concealing weapons.