Indonesian militant denies heading terrorist group

An Indonesian militant denied allegations he headed the al Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist group as his trial began today on charges that he hid a key suspect in the Bali bombings.

Abu Rusdan, a 43-year-old cleric, admitted knowing at least two Indonesian terror suspects, but insisted Jemaah Islamiyah was not a terror group.

“It is just a group of Muslim people who get together to talk about … Islamic interests,” Rusdan told reporters at the South Jakarta District Court before his trial began.

Rusdan is accused of helping hide Ali Gufron, alias Mukhlas, who has since been convicted for his role in the October 12, 2002, Bali bombings, which were blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah. Mukhlas was sentenced to death for planning the blasts, which killed 202 people.

Judges opened Rusdan’s trial today, but adjourned it almost immediately after lawyers complained they had not been given enough time to review the charges. Rusdan, who was wearing an Islamic shirt and cap, said nothing in court except to give his name and age.

The indictment alleges that Abu Rusdan replaced Abu Bakar Bashir as head of Jemaah Islamiyah at a ceremony held in a hillside villa outside Jakarta in April 2002.

Despite this allegation, Rusdan is not charged with heading the group. Investigators chose not to pursue the allegation because of fears they could not get a conviction, police have said.

“It is not true I replaced Abu Bakar Bashir,” Rusdan told reporters while entering the court.

In August, Bashir was found guilty of treason and sentenced to four years in jail but was found not guilty of heading the group, which has yet to be outlawed in Indonesia.

Jemaah Islamiyah has been listed by the UN as a terrorist group. Last month, the US froze the assets of 10 alleged members of the group. Rusdan was not one of them.

Rusdan denied earlier statements by his lawyers that he had travelled to Afghanistan, but admitted meeting Hambali, Jemaah Islamiyah’s alleged operations chief, in an apartment in Malaysia in 1999.

“That was long before the bombings happened in Indonesia,” he said, declining to say what he talked about with Hambali, who was arrested in August in Thailand.

Rusdan, who was arrested in April at his hometown of Kudus in Central Java, faces a maximum of 15 years in jail if found guilty under the country’s new anti-terror laws.

Rusdan’s trial follows the convictions of 29 Bali bombing suspects who have received sentences ranging from three years to death.