Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Police said here yesterday that suspected terror mastermind Hambali had sent US$45,000 to fellow militants in Indonesia to finance bombings in the country.
The police also issued a wanted list of five suspects in the August 5 bombing of the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta. They included Malaysians Azahari Husin, a former lecturer turned top bomb-maker for Jemaah Islamiah (JI), and former engineering lecturer Noor Din Muhammad Top, also wanted for last October's Bali attacks.
Chief of detectives Erwin Mappaseng told reporters yesterday that police were investigating whether some of the US$45,000 Hambali sent in June was used in the Marriott car blast.
Hambali, Al-Qaeda's linkman for the region and the suspected brains behind the Bali blasts, was arrested last week in Thailand. At that time, Bangkok said Hambali had been planning to carry out a terrorist attack on this year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit.
Thai papers reported yesterday that he denied any such plan and said he was only hiding in the country. When asked about the possible plan targeting the Apec summit, which would be held in Bangkok in October, "he said no", an unnamed Thai security official was quoted by The Nation newspaper as saying.
Information from a Malaysian Al-Qaeda operative nicknamed "Li-Li" helped intelligence officers swoop in on Hambali's hideout in the Thai town of Ayutthaya, The Star reported yesterday. Li-Li was reportedly arrested in Thailand last week by a joint Thai-Central Intelligence Agency team.
He and Zubair, another recently detained Malaysian Al-Qaeda operative, were said to be close to Hambali and acted as his scouts and messengers. Li-Li was said to have transferred the funds from Hambali to his contacts in Indonesia.
Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi confirmed yesterday that two Malaysian militants were being held by the United States, AFP reported.
Zubair and Li-Li, originally from Selangor and Johor respectively, studied in Pakistan, where they were recruited by Al-Qaeda. After their studies, they shuttled between Indonesia, Thailand and Afghanistan, acting on behalf of JI.
Among the five named yesterday, Noor Din was suspected to be the operations chief while Azahari was thought to have rigged the car bomb. Others on the list were an Indonesian named Tohir, said to be an "executor" of the blast, as well as two others who were listed only as "Mr X". They were said to have bought the van used in the attack.