Students fund terrorist attacks: Police

Students fund terrorist attacks: Police

Abdul Khalik
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

Four students recently deported from Pakistan financed terrorist
activities across the country and provided training for
terrorists, police investigators said on Friday.

"They helped and supported terror suspects with funds and
training. We will find out how much and from where they got the
money," said National Police Anti-Terror Division chief Brig.
Gen. Pranowo.

He, however, did not say which terrorist suspects or attacks
the students financed. Neither did he reveal the amount of money
those students passed on.

One of the four students, Rusmawan Gunawan, alias Gun Gun,
told Pakistani authorities earlier that he had sent US$50,000 and
telecommunications device to his brother Riduan Isamuddin alias
Hambali, an Indonesian-born terrorist suspect.

The three other students were identified as Mohammad
Syaifudin, Ilham Sofandi and Furqon Abdullah. The four of them
were declared suspects on Thursday evening and are being held
under Law No. 15/2003 on terrorism.

Pakistan deported six Indonesian students on Dec. 11 for
violations of immigration laws and possible involvement in
terrorist activities. Two others, David Pintarto and Muhammad
Anwar As-Shaddaqi, were released on Tuesday due to lack of
evidence linking them with any crimes here.

Hambali is the alleged leader of Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), a
Southeast Asia terrorist network blamed for a string of terrorist
attacks in the region, including the Bali bombings on Oct. 12,
2002 and the JW Marriott Hotel attack in Jakarta on Aug. 5, 2003.

Believed to be Osama bin Laden's point man in Southeast Asia,
Hambali was arrested in Thailand in August and is currently in
U.S. custody at an undisclosed location.

National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said on Thursday
afternoon that the students only had an indirect role in the
bombings because they were in Pakistan at the time.

He also emphasized the importance of interrogating Hambali
directly so that the police could find out the links between
them.

"We have tried hard enough to get access to Hambali from the
U.S. government, either access to him or his dossier. But we
haven't had a reply from the U.S," Da'i stated.

Meanwhile, one of the students' lawyers, Munarman, said on
Friday that they still considered the detention illegal because
it was not in accordance with existing laws, especially Law No.
8/1981 on arrest procedures and the Criminal Code Procedure
(KUHAP).

"First of all, we and the students' families haven't received
any letters from the police yet. Secondly, If there is Pakistani
intelligence evidence linking the students to terrorists, then
the evidence can't be used here in Indonesia," said Munarman.

He also said that police should have submitted the
intelligence evidence to a local court prior to the arrest, not
during the detention.

Indonesia has been rocked by some powerful terrorist attacks
such as the Bali bombings on Oct. 12, 2002, which killed over 200
people and injured over 300 others, and the JW Marriot Hotel
attacks in South Jakarta on Aug. 5, 2003, killing at least 14
people, including the suicide bomber.