Hambali's henchmen may still be here: Chavalit

Hambali's henchmen may still be here: Chavalit

Agencies, Bangkok/Sandakan, Malaysia

Thailand on Wednesday reluctantly accepted that Asian terrorist
suspect Hambali's henchmen may still be in the country after his
arrest last week.

"It's most likely that some of them are still around," Deputy
Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh told reporters.

Chavalit's comments are a climb down for the government after
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra insisted on Monday that
Hambali's network had been wiped out in the country. However,
critics dismissed his claim as an attempt to show the world,
especially tourists and investors, that Thailand is a safe place.

Hambali, the alleged operations chief of the al-Qaeda-linked
regional group Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), was captured on Aug. 11 in
the ancient temple city of Ayutthaya, 80 kilometers (50 miles)
north of Bangkok, by Thai forces and the CIA. He was handed over
to U.S. authorities and flown to an undisclosed location where he
is being interrogated.

Hambali, an Indonesian whose real name is Riduan Isamuddin, is
believed to have come into the country more than a month ago with
a fake Spanish passport from a northern border crossing,
apparently from neighboring Laos.

"As everyone is aware when a man of that importance comes, he
would not come on his own. There must be followers with him,"
Chavalit said.

He said investigations will reveal how many of his accomplices
are still here.

The Bangkok Post, a respected English daily, said on Monday
that five accomplices are on the loose in Thailand.

It quoted unidentified intelligence sources as saying that
Hambali's interrogation revealed that he was plotting an attack
on the upcoming Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit in
Bangkok from Oct. 20 to 21. The meeting will bring together at
least 20 world leaders, including U.S. President George W. Bush.

Hambali is the suspected mastermind of a string of suicide and
other bombings in Asia, including the Oct. 12, 2002, nightclub
destruction in Bali, Indonesia that killed 202 people, and the
Aug. 5 attack at the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta that killed 12.

Hambali's arrest took place hours after the Thai government
passed two antiterrorism laws by decree without parliament's
approval.

On Tuesday, the Constitutional Court accepted a petition to
review the legality of the two decrees, which critics call a blow
to democracy.

One of the decrees allows the arrest and trial of foreign
suspects. The other amends money laundering laws to permit the
state to freeze the assets of suspected terrorists. Punishment
ranges from 20 years in jail to death.

Separately, the mother-in-law of Hambali said on Wednesday she
was shocked when she saw a television report that he and her
daughter had been arrested in Thailand.

Salmah Abdullah, 67, the mother of Hambali's wife Noralwizah,
said she was desperate to see her daughter, who is now in
detention in Malaysia.

"It was a shock to me," she told a reporter who visited her in
her dilapidated house in Keramat Dua village near Beluran in
Malaysia's Sabah state on Borneo island. "I am now worried sick
about her safety."

Salmah said she first met Hambali some seven years ago when
she took her husband for medical treatment in the capital Kuala
Lumpur. They stayed with their daughter in Hambali's house.

"Hambali was good to us," she said.

"In fact I did not know that he was my son-in-law until we met
and were formally introduced by my daughter."

Salmah said Hambali apologized to her and the family for not
informing them earlier about the marriage.

After the death of her husband, she next met Hambali when he
and her daughter visited Beluran, a coastal town 140 kilometers
from Sandakan in the east coast of Sabah, some five years ago.

Noralwizah had left Beluran for the southern Johor state in
1990 to take up religious studies and apparently met Hambali at
the Luqmanul Hakiem religious school.

The school was founded by elderly Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar
Ba'asyir, JI's alleged spiritual leader, who is on trial in
Jakarta for treason.

Salmah said she was longing to see her daughter, who is being
held under Malaysia's Internal Security Act (ISA) after being
handed over by Thai security forces. Hambali is in United States
custody at a secret location.

Salmah said police had not yet interviewed her about her
daughter's activities, adding that she had been unwell since
seeing news of the arrest on television.

Noralwizah is the youngest of her three children.

Salmah, who lives in poverty, said the last time she heard
from her daughter was three years ago. "She wrote a letter to me.
But I cannot remember the contents," she said.