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.