The Jakarta Post, 4/14/2006 3:09:05 PM
U.S. treasury freezes assets of four suspected terror leaders
WASHINGTON (Bloomberg): The U.S. Treasury Department barred Americans from
conducting financial transactions with four suspected terrorist leaders including Abu
Bakar Baashir, an Indonesian convicted of conspiracy in bombings that killed 202
people in Bali.
In its press release, the Treasury accused Baashir, 67, as the former leader of
Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian terrorist group with links to al-Qaeda.
He was sentenced to 30 months in an Indonesian prison for his role in the 2002
bombings and is scheduled to be released in June.
Members of Jemaah Islamiyah "have been trained, funded and directed by al-Qaeda to
pursue a like-minded terrorist agenda, including executing some of the deadliest
terrorist attacks against innocents since the war on terror began," Pat O'Brien,
assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crime, said in the release.
The group has also been linked to the bombing of the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta that
killed 12 people in August 2003 and suicide attacks in Bali last year that killed 23 and
injured 135.
The other Jemaah Islamiyah leaders listed by Treasury are Gun Gun Rusman
Gunawan, who was sentenced to four years in jail by an Indonesian court on charges
of helping to finance the Marriottbombing; Taufik Rifki, who is under arrest in the
Philippines; and Abdullah Anshori, alleged head of Jemaah Islamiyah in Indonesia.
The Treasury designation also freezes any assets the four men might hold in the U.S.
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