Posted on 07/16/2004 12:39:23 AM PDT by bunkerhill7
Suspected JI leader nabbed in Indonesia
CANBERRA (Australia) - The suspected leader of the Australian arm of the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist group has been found in Indonesia and is under investigation there, but Canberra has no immediate plans to extradite him, authorities said on Friday.
Adbul Rahim Ayub, who has dual Indonesian and Australian citizenship, left Australia four days after Jemaah Islamiah bombers killed 202 people on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali on Oct 12, 2002. Advertisement
Australian security agents carried out a string of raids on suspected JI supporters in Australia in the aftermath of the Bali bombings and arrested Jack Roche, who was convicted earlier this year of taking part in an Al-Qaeda plot to blow up the Israeli embassy in Canberra, an attack that was never carried out.
Roche told police Abdul was in telephone contact with alleged Jemaah Islamiah chief Abu Bakar Bashir and conspired to bomb the Israeli embassy in Canberra in 2000.
He was tracked down by Indonesian intelligence agency BIN three months ago at Puncak, a town near the West Java city of Bogor, and is cooperating with Indonesian inquiries, The Australian newspaper reported on Friday.
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock's spokesman confirmed Abdul had been found in Indonesia.
He said the Australian Federal Police would need enough evidence to charge him before he could be extradited.
'All I can indicate is he is of interest to us and investigations are continuing,' Mr Ruddock told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio.
Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty said it was difficult to say when his agents would seek to interview Abdul.
Prime Minister John Howard described the terrorist threat to Australia as 'alive and well' and warned Australians against complacency.
'We cannot afford to be complacent and the conviction of Jack Roche a few weeks ago on his admission is another reminder we are not divorced from these dangers,' he told Melbourne radio 3AW.
Roche, 50, was sentenced to nine years in prison after pleading guilty in Western Australia state District Court in May to plotting to bomb the embassy in 2000.
He told police the plot was called off by Bashir, currently in custody in Indonesia on suspicion of terrorism, because of infighting between Abdul, his twin brother Abdul Rahman Ayub, in Australia and Hambali, who was then Jemaah Islamiah's operations chief. -- AP
FYI
Bit by bit and piece by piece, the terrorist network will be disassembled until all that's left is just the ugly memory. Not a job for the faint-hearted or impatient.
--Boot Hill
bump
excellent. thanks for the ping.
More good news from the front.
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