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JP/4/trial

Hambali accomplice faces six-year jail term

Sari P. Setiogi
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Muhammad Saefuddin, an accomplice of alleged terror plotter
Hambali, should be given a six-year jail term, prosecutors at the
Central Jakarta District Court said.

Saefuddin, a former Indonesian student at the Abu Bakar
Islamic University in Karachi, Pakistan, had been involved in
terrorist activities in Indonesia, prosecutor A.A. Welang told
the trial.

He said the defendant was charged for giving Hambali updated
information on Indonesia, particularly in its conflict areas such
as Ambon and Poso in Central Sulawesi.

Hambali, who police say is a key leader of the regional Jamaah
Islamiyah terror group, has been blamed for masterminding a
series of bombings in the country, including the Bali blasts that
killed 202 people and the JW Marriott Hotel attack, which claimed
13 lives.

He was arrested in Thailand in August 2003 and is currently
being detained in U.S. custody.

Welang, who read the charge, said Saefuddin met Hambali in
Afghanistan in 2001, while he knew that the latter was wanted by
the Indonesian police for his suspected involvement in the
Christmas church bombings in 2000.

Saefuddin was also charged with recruiting Indonesian students
in Pakistan to join military training in Afghanistan for
terrorist purposes, the prosecutor said.

The defendant was a member of the al-Ghuraba study group of
Indonesian and Malaysian students in Karachi, which had
undertaken paramilitary training in terrorism while in
Afghanistan.

The training held at the al-Faruq Camp taught new recruits
bomb making, map reading and how to use AK-47, M-16, Uzzi and
Macarov automatic rifles.

Saefuddin was arrested in Karachi along with three other
Indonesian students -- Gun Gun Rusman Gunawan, Ilham Sopandi and
Furqon Abdullah -- in September. Also rounded up at the time were
13 Malaysian and two Myanmarese students.

The four Indonesian students were deported to Jakarta in
December last year for interrogation at the National Police
Headquarters.

Prosecutors said the al-Ghuraba study group was established by
Gun Gun, with the support from his elder brother Hambali, to
create more militant recruits for terrorist attacks.

The militants were taught Islam must be protected from its
enemies -- Jews, Communists and the United States -- by any means
possible, including the use of suicide bombings, prosecutors
said.

In a separate trial on Monday, Gun Gun accused the United
States of playing a role in his arrest.

"We are only victims of American paranoia," he said in his
defense plea.