Tom Allard, Jakarta – The publisher of a popular Indonesian Islamist website and magazine has been arrested by counter-terrorism authorities, accused of organising the financing for attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels last month.
Mohammad Jibril was detained on Tuesday on his way from the offices of Arrahmah Media to the home of his father, Abu Jibril, a prominent Indonesian militant and the deputy leader of Majelis Mujahideen Indonesia or the Indonesian Mujahideen Council. Abu Jibril owns Arrahmah Media but his son is executive director and runs the operation.
"It's all engineered," Abu Jibril said at a press conference yesterday. "I know for sure what my son did. Every day he asked me for money for meals and gasoline. How come a person like that can have financed a bombing?"
Police suspect that the funding for the twin suicide attacks – which killed seven bystanders, including three Australians – came from the Middle East. Mohammad Jibril is suspected of working with a Saudi Arabian national, Ali Mohammad Abdillah, in bringing the money from the Middle East to Indonesia.
"We are still investigating whether al-Qaeda or another group abroad funded the bombings," said a police spokesman, Nanan Soekarna.
After arresting Mohammad Jibril on Tuesday night, police also raided the office of Arrahmah Media in Bintaro in South Jakarta, taking away laptops, documents and banners.
As well as publishing the website and monthly glossy magazine Jihadmagz, Arrahmah also distributed the autobiographies of Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra – the men behind the Bali bombings in 2002 – after their executions last year.
The website, Arrahmah.com, published photos of the three men taken just hours after their execution by firing squad.
Both Arrahmah Media and the MMI are well-established organisations in Indonesia, well known for their militant views and support of an Islamic caliphate in Indonesia.
The Jibril family spent more than a decade in Malaysia where they were associates of the founders of Jemaah Islamiah, Abdullah Sungkar and Abu Bakar Bashir. Abu Jibril was a student at Bashir's school in Ngruki in central Java.
Police have arrested at least six people in connection with the hotel bombings, and killed three others in raids. But the alleged mastermind, Noordin Mohammed Top, remains at large.