Posted on 05/20/2003 9:48:59 AM PDT by knighthawk
DAYS before he goes on trial for planning the Bali bombings, self-declared Indonesian terror mastermind Ali Ghufron has sent his wife a letter urging her to raise their newborn son to emulate the deeds and attitude of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
As prosecutors announced they would merge a series of charges on Ali Ghufron's co-accused, Imam Samudra, in a legal manoeuvre designed to guarantee the stiffest possible penalty for the alleged mass murderer, the man also known as Mukhlas remained unrepentant over the atrocity. He told his wife that he hoped Usamah Ali Ghufron, born early this month, would "inherit the attitude of Usamah bin Ladin (sic)" and praised the world's most wanted terrorist as "a divine gift from Allah" sent to enrich "the whole Muslim world".
The letter was part of a package handed by Mukhlas's younger brother, Amrozi - the "smiling assassin" who until now has been the public face of the Bali trials - to both men's defence lawyer at the end of Amrozi's brief court appearance on Monday.
In the note, Mukhlas urged his Malay wife of 10 years, Umu Asma'a, to pray that baby Usamah and his five siblings - Asma'a, Zaid, Balqis, Hannah and Khutaib - proved to be "useful" to their parents.
He expressed the wish that Usamah be encouraged in the ways not only of bin Laden, but also of Usamah bin Zaid, one of the Prophet Mohammed's most feared generals, who was a "great mujaheddin" and "stood out as a war commander even though at the time there were many commanders of high calibre" available to Islam's founder.
Noting admiringly that bin Laden had been prepared to "go on to the field of jihad" in the name of Allah, he expressed confidence that his own Usamah would inherit the same traits, saying that anyone who thought otherwise was "false".
Mukhlas also took the opportunity to deal with more practical matters. He wrote to his brother, Khosyin, a teacher at the Al Islam school in their East Javanese home village of Tenggulun, asking him to conduct some business in relation to a house he rented there, and urging Khosyin to continue his devotion to Islam and Allah. He asked Khosyin to apologise to his former lawyer, whom he sacked two weeks ago, after the lawyer suggested he express regret for the Bali attacks in the hope of receiving a lighter sentence,
Mukhlas, an alleged leader of one of four southeast Asian Jemaah Islamiah terror cells, said that when he was urged by his former lawyers to show contrition for the attacks, he responded: "This is jihad, not drugs. We are not sorry at all."
He boasted in an interview this week in the Indonesian news magazine Tempo of being the overall commander of the Bali attacks and said he was "blind to the law system".
In recent days he has repeatedly affirmed his commitment to what he describes as a jihad against the US and its Western allies.
Mukhlas's trial is due to begin as early as next week, and will run on alternate days to Amrozi's. The trial of Samudra, the alleged field co-ordinator for the bombings, is also expected to begin within days, after prosecutors hand over his file to the district court in Bali this morning.
Prosecutors said yesterday they hoped that by merging Samudra's charges on a series of bombing attacks on schools and churches in Jakarta over Christmas 2000 with the Bali charges, they would maximise the chance of his receiving the maximum sentence, possibly including the death penalty.
They said they wanted to avoid his being found guilty of the earlier bombings alone, which would carry a lighter sentence and prevent his being sentenced separately for the Bali attack.
Bali chief prosecutor IK Yona confirmed yesterday that Samudra's trial would start soon, as would the hearings of four peripheral Bali bombing players, known as the Serang group.
Mr Yona also revealed that it was unlikely Australian witnesses would be called to give evidence at any of the trials, because there were enough Indonesian witnesses and he wanted to minimise the number of people forced to relive their ordeals.
"Useful"? That is just so sick.
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