Oz bomb plot suspect names cleric as terror chief

A British-born terror suspect told Australian police that Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir was in charge of south-east Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, a court heard today.

Jack Roche, on trial in Perth for plotting to blow up the Israeli Embassy in Canberra, told Australian Federal Police that Bashir, currently in custody in Indonesia, was in charge of Jemaah Islamiyah.

Bashir has always denied the allegation.

“Ultimately, he’s the one who makes decisions regarding the structure of JI in Southeast Asia,” Roche said in videotaped interviews with police, excerpts of which were shown in Perth District Court.

Bashir, 66, was rearrested in April on the day he finished serving an 18-month prison term for minor immigration offences.

Police in Indonesia say they have new evidence to prove he is the leader of Jemaah Islamiyah.

They said the cleric approved a string of terror attacks that included the Bali bombings in 2002 which killed 202 people.

Bashir has always denied being the leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, and says he has no links to terrorism.

Roche, 50, from Hull, denies plotting to blow up the Canberra embassy. He faces a maximum 25-year sentence if convicted. The bombing was never carried out.

Last week, prosecutors said he discussed the plot with senior al-Qaida and Jemaah Islamiyah operatives and even found himself sitting opposite Osama bin Laden once while in Afghanistan.

Roche, who changed his name from Paul George Holland around the end of 2001, was allegedly in Afghanistan to undergo explosives training.

Prosecutors claimed last week that Jemaah Islamiyah’s alleged operations chief, Hambali, gave him £50,000 (€74,700) to carry out an attack.

Roche told federal police interrogators that he believed Hambali was below Bashir in the Jemaah Islamiyah hierarchy.

“I believe he was under Abu Bakar Bashir,” Roche said in excerpts of the taped interrogation. ”I believe he (Hambali) was in charge of what went on structurally in JI in Malaysia.”

In notes seized by police and read last week in court, Roche wrote that Hambali, the alleged mastermind of the Bali bombings, was interested in “doing something” at the Sydney Olympics. The notes did not elaborate.