Terror suspects profited from state contracts: Newspaper
Terror suspects profited from state contracts: Newspaper
Associated Press, Kuala Lumpur
Southeast Asia's top terror suspect used government contract work and an Islamic charity to bankroll the al-Qaeda-linked extremist group blamed for the Oct. 12 Bali bombing, a Malaysian newspaper reported.
The Star newspaper published new details this week about how Hambali ran a company in Malaysia, Al Risalah Trading, as a Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) front.
Citing intelligence reports and unnamed police officials, the newspaper said two operatives from JI, a school principal and an engineer, worked for the state and awarded Hambali lucrative government contracts.
Profits from the ventures, including the installation of water pipes and supplying school stationery, were used to fund JI activities, it claimed.
The two government workers are among more than 70 Islamic militant suspects arrested in Malaysia since mid-2001 who are being held without trial for threatening national security.
Police cited by The Star also accused Hambali of founding a Muslim charity as a front to collect donations to fund terrorism.
The Star said Hambali amassed at least 2 million ringgit (US$526,000) - including a payment given to him by the al-Qaeda terrorist network.
The money was used to buy weapons, send JI recruits for military training and fund bomb plots.
Veteran opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said the government should release a full report of its intelligence on al-Qaeda- linked terrorist networks, sleeper cells and extremist activities in Malaysia during the past 10 years.
Such a report would be "an important step to eradicate the international perception of Malaysia as a 'terrorist center,"' the Democratic Action Party leader said in a statement.
Jamaah Islamiyah is suspected in the nightclub bombings on Indonesia's Bali island that killed 192 people, mostly foreign tourists, and a series of other attacks in Southeast Asia.
Hambali is also accused of helping set up a meeting of senior al-Qaeda operatives, including two Sept. 11 hijackers, in Malaysia in 2000 and of involvement in a foiled plot to bomb the U.S. Embassy and other targets in Singapore.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has declared Malaysia safe from terrorists.
Mahathir on Thursday hailed the trouble-free passing of several national holidays.
He said big public celebrations for Christmas, New Year and the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr, known in Malaysia as Hari Raya, had presented terrorists with "a good chance ... to do harm."
"But nothing happened," Mahathir was quoted as saying by the Bernama national news agency.
Mahathir recently criticized several foreign governments for advising their citizens that they could be the target of attacks in several Southeast Asian countries, including Malaysia, where the JI group operates.