[Kabar-indonesia] 6 Terrorism Articles: Bali bombing suspect says he was brainwashed

[Joyo at aol.com]

6 articles:

- 2005 Bali bombing suspect says he was  brainwashed
  by Southeast Asian terror chief

- Indonesian police hand over terror suspect to 
  prosecutors

- Daily Telegraph: Terrorist mourns Bali dead

- Australian: Bali bombers trio to appeal convictions

- Age: Bali bomb appeals delay executions

- Transcript: Bali bombings trial hears chilling plan 
  
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2005 Bali bombing suspect says he was brainwashed by
Southeast Asian terror chief

BALI, Indonesia, July 4 (AP) - An Islamic militant on
trial for the 2005 Bali bombings admitted Tuesday to
meeting Southeast Asia's most wanted terror suspect
ahead of the attacks and creating a Web site promoting
holy war -- but claimed he did so only after being
brainwashed.

Abdul Azis, 30, told the Denpasar District Court he
met Malaysian terror fugitive Noordin Top 10 times in
Central Java's Pekalongan village in the months
leading up to the Oct. 1 suicide bombings that left 20
people dead.

Azis provided few details, but his indictment said
Noordin convinced him to design a Web site that called
on Islamic militants to wage war against infidels and
provided details about other terror attacks.

Azis was also asked to make a logo for the site, the
indictment said, and to modify a personal computer so
it could be used as a television.

Azis said he did not go to police even though he
suspected the man was Noordin -- wanted for a string
of al-Qaida-linked terrorist attacks across the
predominantly Muslim nation -- because his persuasive
powers were too great to resist.

"I do not agree with suicide bombing or fighting
against other religions," said Azis, one of four
defendants facing trial for the bombings on three
crowded restaurants. "Maybe he was using black magic.
He has an extraordinary charisma ... more than my
father."

The four suspects, who are being tried separately on
charges ranging from withholding information about the
terror strikes to making or transporting the
explosives, face maximum penalties of death if found
guilty.

Noordin is an alleged leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah
militant group, which is also accused of orchestrating
the much more deadly 2002 nightclub bombings on Bali
island.

Three Islamic militants on death row for those
attacks, which killed 202 mostly foreign tourists,
will file a final appeal against their convictions
later this month, Wirawan Adnan, their lawyer, said
Tuesday.

That could stand in the way of the Attorney General's
efforts to speed up their executions.

"The prosecutors can execute them whenever they want,
but it will be against the law since the three still
have the right to appeal," Adnan told The Associated
Press.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Indonesian police hand over terror suspect to
prosecutors

JAKARTA, July 4 (AFP) -- Indonesian police on Tuesday
handed over to prosecutors an Islamic militant
suspected of having close links with a top Malaysian
bombmaker in preparation for trial, an official said.

Ahmad Basyir, aged 36, was transferred to the East
Java prosecutors' office in Surabaya by detectives,
said Halimawan Peksi, an official with the
prosecutors' office.

Basyir, who was arrested in the city in March, was
then taken by prosecutors to the nearby town of Malang
where he will face trial, he said.

He is accused of links to Malaysian master-bombmaker
Azahari Husin, who was shot dead during a police raid
in East Java's Batu last November. His compatriot and
partner-in-crime Noordin Mohammad Top remains on the
run.

"The venue of his trial has been moved to Malang from
Surabaya because he was involved in the provision of
hideouts for Azahari and Noordin in the town of Batu,
near Malang," he told AFP.

National police deputy spokesman Anton Bahrul Alam had
said that Basyir was suspected of "having hidden, and
provided a house for" Noordin and Azahari before the
latter's death at a different house.

Both men were known to be key members of the al
Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah regional extremist
network, blamed for a series of terrorist attacks in
the region, including the 2002 Bali bombings that
killed 202 people.

The pair were also believed to have planned triple
suicide bombings on the island in October last year
which killed 20 bystanders. Experts believe they may
have split off from JI to form their own more militant
group.

Basyir is also accused of sending another terror
suspect, Cholili, to Solo in Central Java to undergo
paramilitary training there. Cholili's arrest in
Semarang on November 9 led to the raid on Azahari's
hideout later the same day.

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Daily Telegraph 
Wednesday, July 5, 2006

Terrorist mourns Bali dead

Cindy Wockner

ONE of the men charged over last year's terrorist
bombings in Bali has told how he was grateful to be
arrested, that he was saddened by the deaths caused
and how he now believes suicide bombings are "haram"
or forbidden by God.

Testifying at the trial of one of his co-accused in
the triple suicide bombing attacks, computer teacher
Abdul Aziz yesterday said that on his arrest he said
"Alhamdulillah" or thanks God.

A contrite Aziz, 30, said that when he first heard
about the deaths in Bali on October 1 last year two of
his colleagues had shouted "Allah Akbar" and praised
God but that he had slumped in a chair, saddened.

"Suicide is haram," he said.

At the end of his testimony, chief judge Arif
Supratman, a fellow Muslim who was angered by the
ideology of terror group Jeemah Islamiah and its
followers, delivered a homily to Aziz.

He urged people like him to use their knowledge and
intellect for good not evil, telling them "this world
is blessed by the God".

Aziz is accused of helping make a jihadist website
which advocated killing westerners and praised suicide
bombings. Judge Supratman had less patience for the
next witness, Moh Cholily, another of the accused
facing trial in Denpasar District Court.

Cholily was being tutored in bomb construction by JI's
bomb expert Azahari Husin and it was he who finally
lead police to Azahari's hideout. Azahari was shot
dead during a police raid.

Judge Supratman wanted to know why, if Cholily knew
Azahari for so long, he did not go to police earlier.

Cholily replied that he had not wanted to dob in
Azahari.

The bombing left 20 innocent people and three suicide
bombers dead.

* THREE key 2002 Bali bombers on death row in
Indonesia are to be executed at their island jail and
not in Bali, the scene of their crime.

"The execution will not be held in Bali ... It will be
held in Nusakambangan," Attorney-General Abdul Rahman
Saleh said yesterday.

Imam Samudra, 36, Amrozi, 43, and Ali Ghufron, 46,
alias Mukhlas, were moved from a Bali jail last
October to Nusakambangan for security reasons.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Australian 
Wednesday, July 5, 2006

Bali bombers trio to appeal convictions

Stephen Fitzpatrick Jakarta correspondent Additional
reporting: AP

THE three Bali bombers on death row will appeal their
convictions in an attempt to avoid an Indonesian
firing squad, angering the families of Australian
victims.

Their appeal will be based on the fact that the
anti-terrorism legislation used to convict them of the
October 2002 bombings that killed 202 people was
enacted after the attacks, lawyer Wirawan Adnan told
The Australian yesterday.

Imam Samudra, 36, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, 43, and Ali
Ghufron, alias Mukhlas, 46, have already said they do
not want a presidential pardon for their crimes.

But Mr Adnan said the planned application for a
judicial review had "no connection" with their guilt
or otherwise.

"Even criminals deserve justice. So they must be tried
under the criminal code, not under the anti-terrorism
legislation," Mr Adnan said. "We have already received
the power of attorney from our clients to lodge the
review.

"They themselves (the bombers) have requested this. If
the review is accepted, there will be a new verdict in
a new case."

Peter Iliffe, whose 28-year-old son Joshua was among
the 88 Australians killed in the bombings, said he was
shocked by the turnaround.

"Rotten bastards. So much for their mouthing-off
initially -- they're just cowards," Mr Iliffe said.
"This is just unbelievable, and we go on kowtowing."

Mr Iliffe said he would like to see Australia try to
state a case on behalf of victims. "Certainly, Foreign
Affairs should do something about it. I think (John)
Howard should comment as well," he said.

"I'm just shocked for all the mouthing-off those
mongrels did. They're just bloody gutless cowards. It
shows what brave fellas these terrorists are -- at
least they could have the courage of their
convictions."

Mr Adnan conceded that the men could still be
sentenced to death under the criminal code.

It was widely expected that the three men would not
appeal, even though Indonesia's constitutional court
ruled in 2003 that its enabling of retroactive
legislation specifically to try the three had been
illegal. That ruling was in a suit brought by Mr Adnan
separately to the bombers' actual trials.

"We've been telling the court all along that they
can't use this retroactive legislation, but no one has
listened to us," Mr Adnan said.

"We've been thinking about lodging this review for a
long time."

Indonesian Attorney-General Abdul Rahman Saleh said
this week he expected the three men to be executed on
the remote prison island of Nusakambangan off southern
Java, where they are now housed, rather than in Bali,
where they committed their crimes.

The three had previously been sharing space in Bali's
Kerobokan jail with Australians Schapelle Corby, the
Bali Nine heroin smuggling gang and, for a short time,
model Michelle Leslie, who was arrested for possessing
ecstasy. The bombers were moved to Nusakambangan in
October on security grounds.

In Denpasar last night, an Islamic militant on trial
for last year's bombings on the island admitted to
meeting the alleged organiser of the attacks and
withholding information from police -- but said he did
so only after being brainwashed.

Abdul Azis, 30, told Denpasar District Court he met
Malaysian terror fugitive Noordin Mohammed Top 10
times in the months leading to the October suicide
bombings that killed 20 people.

"I do not agree with suicide bombing or fighting
against other religions," he said, adding that he did
not go to police, because of Noordin's persuasive
powers.

"Maybe he was using black magic. He has an
extraordinary charisma."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Age 
Wednesday, July 5, 2006

Bali bomb appeals delay executions

Mark Forbes, Indonesia Correspondent, Jakarta

THE firing squad has been selected but the executions
of three senior Bali bombers are likely to be delayed,
with their lawyers planning a last-ditch legal appeal
to overturn the death sentences of Amrozi, Mukhlas and
Imam Samudra.

Indonesian Justice Minister Hamid Awaludin yesterday
confirmed he had issued permission for the execution
of the trio to proceed on Nusakambangan in central
Java, where they are being held on an island prison.

However, their lawyers said they would seek a judicial
review of their convictions for their role in the 2002
Bali bombings, despite the trio's earlier insistence
that they wanted to die as martyrs and waive their
rights to appeal for clemency.

Although the executions could take place at any time,
Government spokesmen indicated they would halt the
process if judicial reviews were sought.

Balinese leaders have been demanding the sentences be
carried out since the second bombings in Bali last
October. The second blast was linked to the same
Jemaah Islamiah terrorist network that carried out the
first attacks, which left 202 people dead, including
88 Australians.

The co-ordinator of the trio's legal team,
Mahendradatta, told The Age that they would call for a
judicial review on the grounds that the
counter-terrorism law the men were convicted under was
unconstitutional.

First, Mr Mahendradatta said, he would write to
Denpasar District Court next week requesting the
review be held outside of Bali, claiming his clients
could not receive a fair hearing there.

"We want to appreciate the feeling of the Balinese
people, we don't want to open the old wounds," he
said.

Prosecutors should postpone the executions until the
judicial review was completed, Mr Mahendradatta said.
If the appeal was successful, the trio might be
retried under a conventional murder charge.

Execution is normally carried out by a firing squad
where death row convicts have been tried. The men were
moved from Bali to the prison island of Nusakambangan
in central Java as a security precaution following the
second Bali bombings.

It was "simpler" to execute the men on the island,
Attorney- General Abdul Rahman Saleh said. "If it is
clear they won't go on with judicial review the
process (of execution) will move forward," he said.

Spokesman Wayan Pasek said the timing of the
executions would be kept secret until after they were
carried out.

"We are preparing the execution, co-ordinating it with
the police, doctors, consulting related parties for
the location," Mr Pasek said.

"But if they file judicial review we have to postpone
the execution.

We have to wait until the Supreme Court delivers a
decision."

Central Java Police Chief Inspector General Dody
Sumantyawan said the firing squad had already been
selected from police ranks and was ready to carry out
the sentence. "The execution (plan) has been put in
place, we're just waiting for further information from
the prosecutor's office," he said.

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Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News 
July 4, 2006 
-transcript-

Bali bombings trial hears chilling plan Bali bombings
trial hears chilling plan

Geoff Thompson

MARK COLVIN: The trials of four accomplices to the
second Bali bombings continued in Denpasar's district
court today.

The accused men told the court about the charisma, as
they put it, of Indonesia's most wanted terrorist,
Noordin Mohammed Top.

And there were more details about how their arrests
led to last November's fatal police raid on the
hideout of Jemaah Islamiah's master bomb-maker Dr
Azahari Husin.

That raid also netted a 34-page document on Dr
Azahari's laptop computer, titled "The Bali Project",
with chilling details about how last October's attacks
were planned to the last minute.

>From Jakarta, our Indonesia Correspondent Geoff
Thompson reports.

(Sounds of Indonesian music)

GEOFF THOMSPON: As Indonesian rock music blares
outside a Jakarta book fair last night, a much more
solemn sound is emerging from within.

(Sound of Islamic prayer)

In many ways, it's a fitting metaphor for some of the
extremes of life and worship on offer today in
Indonesia.

Free-wheeling consumerism on the one hand, and strict
interpretations of Islam on the other. Not to mention,
the many, many shades in between.

The star guest of the evening is Abu Bakar Bashir,
here to promote the book he released from prison,
titled .

In it, he rails against Australia, and without any
provocation from the press, he did that again last
night.

(Sounds of Abu Bakar Bashir talking)

"George Bush is a fundamentalist infidel," he said,
"and Australia, Howard, whatever their names are, are
also fundamentalist infidels.

All they want is for Muslims to follow them. If you
want to be safe, you should convert to Islam. If you
don't want to convert to Islam, you're not going to be
safe. It's just as simple as that."

Earlier, Bashir was calling on the Indonesian
Government to send holy warriors to the Middle East to
fight against Israel.

Indeed, Abu Bakar Bashir's pronouncements about
anything since his release have become highly
predictable.

The ageing cleric has done his time, following a
conviction, which most observers agree would never
have washed in a western court.

He was never linked with last October's second Bali
bombings, which were clearly the work of the late
master bomb-maker Azahari Husin and the fugitive,
Noordin Mohammed Top.

While the trial continues of some of their accomplices
in Denpasar District Court, Noordin remains at large.

But a document titled, The Bali Project, was found on
Azahari's computer, when police killed him in a raid
on his hideout last November.

The 34-page document has recently been spelt out in
the , but was first reported in Indonesia's magazine
by journalist, Agung Rulianto.

AGUNG RULIANTO: At the end of the day, yes he planned
it exactly the time when the Bali bombing, the actor
of the Bali bombing have to go from their home and
when they have to turn on, turn on the bomb.

GEOFF THOMPSON: The detail of the day's planning is
chilling. Plotting the attack right down to the last
minute.

"5:25pm," the document reads, "Pack, check out of
boarding house and synchronise watches, 5:30 look for
a motorcycle to Legian Beach in Kuta, 6:15pm arrive
near the Hard Rock Cafe in Kuta and look for a place
to pray. 6:35pm, end evening prayers."

It goes on, "7:21pm, the man who is going to detonate
his explosives in Kuta, begins moving towards the
restaurant, making sure the red and green lights are
on his bomb backpack, 7:33 arrive at the restaurant,
7:33:25, make sure the delay switches are all ready
and enter the restaurant."

Then at 7:34pm, when the bomb explodes, it reads,
"Allahu Akbar" or "God is Great."

Azahari clearly relishing the planning details, the
document said how he tried to focus on where
foreigners, including Australians, gathered, and to
minimise the impacts on Muslims. "But nevertheless,"
he writes, "there were still Muslims killed and
wounded."

In Jakarta, this is Geoff Thompson for ABC News.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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