The Jakarta Post, 7/16/2004 2:46:23 PM
No proof former Aussie school teacher is militant leader: Police
JAKARTA (AFP): Indonesia's top anti-terrorist investigator said on Friday there was
"no proof" a former Australian school teacher believed to be in Indonesia heads the
Australian branch of theJamaah Islamiyah militant group.
"There is still no proof" that Abdul Rahim Ayub leads the Australian branch of JI, Brig.
Gen. Pranowo told AFP.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Friday confirmed elements of a report in
The Australian newspaper which said Ayub was located about three months ago in
Puncak, a town near the West Java city of Bogor.
Ayub, who The Australian said was a dual Australian-Indonesian national, has not
been arrested but has been cooperating with Indonesia's national intelligence agency,
BIN, and remains under the watch of BIN agents, the newspaper said.
Howard confirmed that Ayub had been located and questioned by the Indonesians,
but declined to elaborate further.
Pranowo, director of the U.S.-trained Special Detachment 88 anti-terrorist squad,
denied that Ayub was co-operating with the authorities.
"He is free," said Pranowo. "We don't have proof that he has committed any
violations."
Authorities blame the al-Qaeda-linked JI for a string of attacks including the Bali
bombings which killed 202 people in October 2002 and the Marriott hotel car bombing
which killed 12 in Jakarta last August.
The group has been outlawed as a terrorist organization in Australia, but is not
banned in Indonesia.
Ayub and his twin brother Adbul Rahman, were identified as the leaders of JI in
Australia by Jack Roche, a British-born convert to Islam who last month became the
first Australian convicted of terrorism offenses. (**)
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