Defendant denies hiding Bali bomber

Defendant denies hiding Bali bomber

Wahyoe Boediwardhana and Irvan NR, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar/Palu

Bali bombings suspect Ahmad Roichan alias Saad admitted on
Thursday that he frequently met with Ali Gufron alias Mukhlas,
one of the main perpetrators of the bombings, shortly after the
attack.

But the defendant said he had never intended to hide Mukhlas,
whom he received at his rental house in the Central Java town of
Surakarta when Mukhlas was a fugitive.

"I am from Sidoarjo, East Java. How can I give a suggestion on
finding a hiding place for Ali Gufron in Surakarta?" Roichan told
the Denpasar District Court.

Roichan was responding to the testimony of witness Bambang
Setiono, who was jailed for seven years in September for hiding
Mukhlas. Bambang had told the court Roichan had met with Abu
Dujana, Zulkarnaen and Mukhlas in Surakarta days after the Bali
blast, which killed 202 people.

Bambang said during the meeting Roichan had suggested that the
two seek a rental house for Mukhlas in Surakarta.

The defendant was not accompanied by his lawyers during the
hearing.

In his testimony, Bambang said he did not know if Mukhlas was
involved in the bombings.

"What I have heard is that Amrozi's brother took part in the
bombings. The police did not intimidate me during the hearing but
they often directed me to answer the judges' questions," Bambang
told the court.

In a separate trial, three witnesses testified against another
suspect Heri Hafidin.

Two other suspects, Suranto Abdul Ghoni and Sarjiyo alias
Syawad, also appeared at the Nari Graha building in Renon area
for their trial without their lawyers. The hearings were
adjourned until next week to hear witnesses' testimonies.

I Gusti Ngurah Astawa, one of the judges in the trial of Abdul
Ghoni, said the panel of judges had waited for the lawyers to
appear before the court.

"But, they failed to turn up. Therefore, we considered that
they had already accepted the indictments and agreed to continue
with the trial," Astawa said.

In the Central Sulawesi capital of Palu, the local
prosecutor's office summoned on Thursday Nasir Abbas alias
Khairudin and Mustafa to testify in the trial of four alleged
members of Jamaah Islamiyah, which has been listed as a terrorist
group by the United Nations.

Prosecutor Firdaus Yahya said Nassir, the alleged chief
operative of JI overseeing the Philippines, Kalimantan, Malaysia
and Sulawesi, was expected to verify the role and position of the
defendants -- Niuzam Khaleb, Fausan, Fajri and Iskandar -- in the
JI, which has been blamed for the Bali blasts in October 2002 and
the JW Marriot Jakarta bombing in August 2003.

The four defendants are charged with harboring Roichan, who is
being tried in Denpasar.

Firdaus also said that the testimony of Nassir and Mustafa
could link the JI to the recent attacks in the Central Sulawesi
towns of Poso and Morowali, in which 13 people were killed.