Posted on 11/11/2002 2:04:49 PM PST by knighthawk
BALI: Indonesian police said on Monday that their chief suspect in the Bali bomb blasts, a man who has confessed to involvement in the attack, was a student of detained Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir.
Major-General Made Mangku Pastika, head of the multinational police investigation into the Bali attacks, told a news conference on the resort island that Bashir was also a co-founder of the Jemaah Islamiah militant Muslim network in Malaysia.
It was the first time that Indonesia had tied the 64-year-old cleric to Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian militant group that has been linked to Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda. Regional officials have alleged Bashir was the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah.
In Jakarta on Monday, a court rejected an appeal by Bashir against his detention, declaring the police action legal.
Bashir has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and insists Jemaah Islamiah does not exist.
Police have been holding Bashir in Jakarta over Christian church bombings in Indonesia in late 2000 and a plot to kill President Megawati Sukarnoputri, but have not tied him to the Bali attack.
"Abu Bakar Bashir is a major preacher who has many students. One of his students is Amrozi," said Pastika, referring to the Indonesian bombing suspect who is under detention in Bali.
Indonesia's defence minister said on Friday that Amrozi was a Jemaah Islamiah member. The minister also said al-Qaeda was behind the October 12 blasts, which killed more than 180 people, mainly foreign holidaymakers.
Pastika said Amrozi had admitted to taking Bashir from the cleric's home in the central Java town of Solo to a small Islamic school, called Al Islam, at the suspect's village in East Java.
"Amrozi admitted that several times he brought Abu Bakar Bashir from Solo to the Al Islam school. He admitted that he invited Abu Bakar Bashir six months ago. That's the relationship so far," said Pastika.
Pastika said Jemaah Islamiah was only found in Malaysia.
But he pointed to ideological links with a radical Indonesian group that Bashir has openly said he helped set up -- the Indonesian Mujahidin Council.
"Amrozi worked in Malaysia and he was a participant in the sermons, conducted by Abu Bakar Bashir, who is one of the founders of Jemaah Islamiah in Malaysia," Pastika said.
"Jemaah Islamiah is only found in Malaysia. In Indonesia, a group was founded with the name of the Indonesian Mujahidin Council...The ideology of Jemaah Islamiah and the Indonesian Mujahidin Council is the same."
Police have said they believed around 10 people who carried out the Bali bomb attacks were still in the country. Amrozi so far is the only suspect they have named in the investigation.
No one has claimed responsibility for the Bali atrocity.
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