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Posted on 04/01/2004 8:09:31 PM PST by DeaconBenjamin
Edict given before Bali blasts, says member
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terrorists responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings and other deadly attacks in South-east Asia were operating under a fatwa, or religious edict, which they believed came from Osama bin Laden, an alleged member of the group said.
Hambali, an Indonesian cleric believed to be a top Al-Qaeda operative, distributed the fatwa to JI members before the group launched attacks in Indonesia, Mohamed Nasir Abbas told Malaysia's TV3 network in comments aired yesterday.
'People who believed in the fatwa carried out bombings,' Nasir said. 'People like Hambali and Mukhlas carried out bombings which they believed were in accordance with the fatwa.'
Mukhlas is one of three people sentenced to death by Indonesian courts for masterminding the nightclub blasts in Bali in October 2002 that killed 202 people.
Nasir's comments appear to strengthen suspicions of links between Al-Qaeda and JI, which was formed in the mid-1990s with the goal of turning much of South-east Asia into an Islamic superstate.
TV3 recently interviewed four Malaysian JI members in Indonesian custody, who now say they renounce the group because it killed Muslims.
'In the end we all saw the result of the bombings they carried out in churches, in Bali and on the Marriott hotel,' Nasir said. 'Those who died were innocent civilians who did not know anything, and Muslims themselves.'
Nasir, who was arrested last April near Jakarta, is accused of heading a JI cell in Sabah and of smuggling explosives and weapons from the Philippines to Indonesia.
Another militant interviewed by TV3, Amran Mansor, claimed he was a JI logistics chief.
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