Jakarta, Aug 20: Southeast Asia's top terror suspect Hambali transferred as much as US$45,000 to a bank in Indonesia last June to finance bombing operations in the country, a senior police official said here. The chief the national police's detective department, Comm Gen Erwin Mappaseng, said yesterday police were still trying to establish whether the money Hambali had sent from Thailand was used for the JW Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta last August 5.
Mappaseng declined to identify the Indonesian bank to which the money had been sent. Hambali, who was reportedly arrested in Thailand last week, is said to have been both a senior al-Qaeda operative and Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) operations chief.
He is currently in the custody of US authorities at a secret location but Indonesian police say they want to question him. Mappaseng said, the police had so far been able to identify 16 people as suspects in the Marriott Hotel bombing that killed 11 people and wounded 150 others. Bureau Report