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October 20, 2002
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- The spiritual leader of a militant Islamic group linked to al-Qaida was arrested in his hospital bed Saturday as police accused his fugitive top aide of responsibility for many of Indonesia's terrorist bombings.
Defense Minister Matori Abdul Djalil stopped short of directly accusing Abu Bakar Bashir of organizing the bloody nightclub attack last week in Bali, but said it was unlikely that he would not have known about many of the country's bomb attacks.
Matori blamed the nightclub attack on al-Qaida "and its internal network" -- a reference to Bashir's organization, Jemaah Islamiyah.
A pair of bombs exploded Oct. 12 outside a Bali nightclub jammed with tourists, setting off a blaze that left at least 183 people dead and more than 300 injured.
Matori said planning for many bombings in Indonesia fell to Bashir's longtime right-hand man, a militant known as Hambali who is wanted by security agencies across Southeast Asia.
"A lot of information and the progress of our intelligence work confirm that Hambali is Abu Bakar Bashir's vice chairman," Matori said. "Hambali is a terrorist from Indonesia. He's always been mentioned by those who did bombings in the past as their commander."
"It is illogical if Abu Bakar Bashir says that he doesn't know about the bombings in Indonesia," Matori said.
Bashir and Hambali, whose real name is Riduan Isamuddin, are accused of running Jemaah Islamiyah, a shadowy group that seeks to create a pan-Southeast Asian Muslim state and is believed to be al-Qaida's main ally in the region.
Hambali is also accused of arranging a meeting of two of the Sept. 11 hijackers and al-Qaida operatives in Malaysia in January 2000. His whereabouts are unknown.
Bashir, 64, has been hospitalized since Friday with breathing problems. Police arrested him Saturday in the hospital in his hometown of Solo and later accused him of feigning illness, dispatching police doctors to examine him.
Bashir has been accused of a series of church bombings across Indonesia on Christmas Eve 2000, in which 19 people died. He has previously denied involvement in those attacks as well as the Bali bombings.
Bashir is likely to be released from Muhammadiyah Hospital in two days, doctors said. Police officials told reporters that questioning would be postponed until then.
President Megawati Sukarnoputri, slow to act against religious militants in the past, on Friday rammed through emergency measures by decree.
The decree allows for suspects to be detained for up to six months without charge, with a judge's approval, and authorizes the death penalty for terrorists.