Bali blast mastermind admits to ties with al-Qaeda

The Times of India ^ | November 27 2002 | AFP

[knighthawk]

JAKARTA: The alleged mastermind of the deadly Bali bombing has admitted he knows a suspected leading al-Qaeda operative called Hambali, Indonesian police said Wednesday.

National police chief General Da’i Bachtiar said Imam Samudra, who was arrested last Thursday while on the run after Bali, previously denied knowing Hambali “but after we showed him evidence, he admitted knowing him.”

Hambali, an Indonesian whose real name is Riduan Isamuddin, is being hunted by five governments.

He is the suspected operations chief of Southeast Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and is also believed to be a leading member of Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda.

Police have said they believe Hambali, who is a suspect in a series of regional terror plots, left Indonesia for Pakistan after the September 11 attacks in the US.

National police detective chief Erwin Mappaseng said Samudra and Hambali were neighbours when both lived in Malaysia. “But apart from being neighbours, we still don’t know the nature of their relationship.”

Police say both Samudra, 32, and another key Bali suspect called Amrozi have admitted they staged the blast to slaughter Westerners and avenge perceived injustices against Muslims. They say Samudra is also linked to several earlier blasts including some of the church bombings on Christmas Eve 2000. Bachtiar has previously described him as JI’s chief operative in Indonesia.

Police on Wednesday only questioned Samudra about a church bombing on Indonesia’s Batam island near Singapore on Christmas Eve 2000, said Wirawan Adnan, a lawyer who accompanied him during the questioning. “He admitted he made the bomb for the attack,” Adnan said, adding that Samudra also named three accomplices in the bombing who are still at large.

[knighthawk]

Ping

[quark]

My guess is the Indonesian authorities are not playing pattycake with this slug, like our PC crowd is doing in Gitmo!