Mohd Adhe Bhakti – A suspected militant on trial for taking part in a paramilitary training camp in Aceh told the court on Thursday that firebrand cleric Abu Bakar Bashir donated $25,000 to their cause.
Members of the camp, uncovered by authorities in February last year, were believed to be plotting Mumbai-style attacks on key targets, including the president, prompting a series of nationwide raids and arrests.
One of those arrested, Luthfi Haidaroh, testified during his trial at the West Jakarta District Court that Bashir had given him Rp 180 million ($20,000) and $5,000 in stages.
"Of that amount, at least Rp 120 million was handed to me directly by Abu Bakar Bashir himself," he said.
Bashir, widely believed to have been the spiritual leader of regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, has been arrested and is awaiting trial for financing the Aceh group.
Luthfi said the money he received from the cleric was part of the total Rp 500 million raised from various donors.
The money, he said, was then channeled to several key militants in the group, including Abdullah Sonata, Agam and Dulmatin, who was killed last March in one of the police raids targeting the Aceh group.
Luthfi said they used the money to buy weapons and other items needed by the group.
The trial has been adjourned to Jan. 27, when prosecutors will recommend a sentence for the defendant.
In a separate hearing at the same courthouse, a former university lecturer was sentenced to six years in prison for concealing information about Dulmatin from the authorities.
The court ruled that Bhakti Rasna had met Dulmatin several times from 2008 until Dulmatin's death in 2010.
Bhakti, who taught accounting at Pancasila University in Jakarta and later became a trader before his arrest, previously denied knowing Dulmatin was a wanted terror suspect and claimed he knew him as Hamzah.
However, Judge Muzaini Ahmad, who presided over the trial, said that Bhakti was close enough to Dulmatin to have known that his friend was wanted by the authorities.
The judge said that the night before Dulmatin was killed in the police raid, he and the defendant had stayed at the home of another friend, identified as Fauzi Syarif.