REUTERS, Tue Jun 15, 2004 07:39 AM ET
Indonesia Terrorist Suspect Says Met Osama Bin Laden
JAKARTA (Reuters) - An Indonesian student charged with terrorism said on Tuesday
he met Osama bin Laden in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi before the
September 11 attacks on the United States.
Muhamad Syaifudin, 24, was one of six Indonesian students deported from Pakistan
last December due to their alleged links with regional Islamic militant network Jemaah
Islamiah (JI), which has been tied to bin Laden's al Qaeda.
"I and my friends had a meeting with Osama bin Laden at Al Farouq mosque in
Karachi. The meeting was before the September 11 incident," Syaifudin told reporters
before the start of his trial at the Central Jakarta District court.
Indonesian police have linked four of the six deported students with JI.
Syaifudin did not give a date for his meeting with bin Laden.
Asked whether the meeting discussed the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York
and Washington, Syaifudin said: "Of course not. Such a plan cannot be told to
everyone."
Bin Laden's al Qaeda has been blamed for the attacks in New York and Washington
when airplanes piloted by suicide hijackers slammed into the World Trade Center and
the Pentagon.
Syaifudin has been charged with three offences including two specified as
participation in terrorist acts, a crime that carries a maximum life sentence.
Prosecutor A.A. Weylang said Syaifudin underwent military-style training at Muslim
rebel camp in the southern Philippines in 2000 and joined the Taliban in Afghanistan
in 2001.
Syaifudin had been a student at Abu Bakar Islamic university in Karachi when he was
detained last September, Weylang said.
He was arrested along with Gun Gun Rusman Gunawan, younger brother of senior JI
leader Hambali, suspected mastermind of the September 11 strikes. Hambali was
arrested in Thailand last August and has been in U.S. custody at an undisclosed
location.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has been rocked by bombings
by Muslim militants in recent years, including nightclub bombings in Bali in 2002 and
a car bomb outside the J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta in 2003. Continued ...
Authorities have blamed the attacks on JI.
Another Indonesian court sentenced two Muslim militants, Lutfi Fadillah alias Zubair,
and Slamet Widodo, to three years in jail for collaborating in terrorism acts.
The South Jakarta district court said the men were found guilty of hiding crucial
information that led to the acts.
Authorities did not specify the acts but said the defendants took part in a meeting
attended by the Bali bombers.
Indonesia has detained dozens of people linked to the attacks in Bali and on the
Marriott and courts have delivered a string of tough verdicts, including death
sentences in several cases.
© Reuters 2004. All rights reserved.
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