LAKSAMANA.Net, December 16, 2003 08:30 AM
Jemaah Islamiyah Official Implicates Baasyir
Laksamana.Net - A sub-regional commander of Southeast Asian terrorism network
Jemaah Islamiyah has testified that he was appointed to the position by radical
Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Baasyir.
Malaysian citizen Nasir Abbas, testifying at South Jakarta District Court on Monday
(15/12/03), said the preacher had sworn him in as the organization's chief overseeing
operations in the Malaysian state of Sabah, the southern Philippines and Indonesia's
North Sulawesi province.
"I was sworn in by Ustadz [teacher] Abu Bakar Baasyir in Solo [Central Java] in 1999
along with 11 other people," Abbas was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse.
Baasyir has long been suspected of being the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah,
but he strongly denies the organization exists, claiming it was invented by the US to
discredit Islam.
Jemaah Islamiyah has been blamed for several terror attacks in the region, including
the October 12, 2002, Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people.
Abbas was testifying in the trial of Abu Rusdan, who allegedly replaced Baasyir as
Jemaah Islamiyah's leader in 2002. Abbas confirmed to the court that Rusdan had
been appointed caretaker leader of the organization at a meeting in Puncak, West
Java, in April 2002.
Rusdan is on trial for giving refuge to Bali bomber Mukhlas and failing to report him to
authorities. Prosecutors have said that five days after the bombings, Mukhlas stayed
with Rusdan and told him "the perpetrators of the Bali bombings were us".
Authorities have found Mukhlas and 28 other people guilty of involvement in the Bali
blasts, but Baasyir has not been directly linked to the attacks.
Central Jakarta District Court in September 2003 convicted Baasyir of treason for
seeking to overthrow the government and set up an Islamic state, but acquitted him of
being the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah.
Jakarta High Court in November quashed the outspoken preacher's four-year treason
conviction but upheld his guilty verdict on the lesser charges of forging documents.
Mukhlas, who is a brother-in-law of Abbas, has been sentenced to death for his role in
the Bali attacks. He was due to testify during Monday's trial but failed to appear in
court. Prosecutors told the court they had found it difficult to bring him to Jakarta from
his jail cell in Bali.
Abbas, who admits to being a Jemaah Islamiyah member for 16 years, was arrested
on April 18 in Bekasi, east of Jakarta. He told the court that Baasyir had appointed
him in his capacity as Jemaah Islamiyah regional chief.
At the time of his arrest, police said Abbas was the alleged head of Jemaah
Islamiyah's "Mantiqi Three" cell, which covers operations in the Philippines, Brunei,
eastern Malaysia, Kalimantan and Sulawesi.
Admission & Denial
Meanwhile, the trial continued of suspected Bali bomber Abdul Ghoni alias Umar alias
Wayan continued on Monday at Denpasar District Court.
Ghoni could face the death penalty if found guilty of helping to plan the attacks,
assemble the bombs and possession of explosives.
On Monday he admitted helping to prepare ingredients for the main bomb that was
detonated outside the Sari Club, but claimed he thought the chemicals were to have
been used as fertilizer.
Ghoni said he crushed the chemicals at the East Java residence of convicted bomber
Amrozi in September 2002 and later took four boxes of the material to Bali by bus. He
insisted that Amrozi had told him they were for fertilizer.
The defendant also admitted he was in Bali on October 1 when the potassium
chlorate, sulfur and aluminum powder were mixed into an explosive material but said
he did not participate in the mixing.
"I only moved the explosive powder from the plastic bags into the filing cabinet[s]," he
was quoted as saying by AFP.
The bomb that was detonated outside the Sari Club was packed into a van and
consisted of 12 filing cabinets filled with 900 kilograms of explosives. The van had
been driven to Bali by Amrozi.
Ghoni claimed the man who mixed the chemicals was Sarjiyo, who is facing trial and
has confessed to mixing the explosives.
Some of the convicted bombers have said the Sari Club bomb was built by two men
who are still at large: Malaysian Azahari Husin and Indonesian Dulmatin.
Convicted bomber Ali Imron, who has testified that Ghoni did not assemble the bomb,
said he first met the defendant in Afghanistan in 1991 during jihad training conducted
by Taliban fighters.
Ghoni's trial resumes on December 22, with prosecutors expected to recommend a
sentence.
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