Jakarta, Sept 02: Al-Qaeda provided funding through alleged terror chief Hambali for bombings in Indonesia, the country's top detective was quoted as saying today. "If the money wasn't from al-Qaeda where was it from? Hambali was al-Qaeda's contact so where else would the money have come from except from al-Qaeda?" Inspector General Erwin Mappaseng was quoted as saying by the Detikcom online news service. A key suspect in last October's Bali bombings, Ali Imron, testified at his own trial last month that he believed Hambali ordered the bombing of two nightclubs which killed 202 people, most of them western vacationers. He was testifying shortly after Hambali was arrested in Thailand and taken into us custody at a secret location.
At the July trial of Imron's brother Ali Ghufron, alias Mukhlas, a member of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant network said al-Qaeda provided funds to JI, which carried out the Bali bombings. Wan Min Bin Wan Mat, a Malaysian who is detained in that country, testified that he gave a total of 35,500 dollars to Mukhlas in 2002. Mukhlas is charged with having overall responsibility for the bombings.


"From my conversations, contacts with ... Jemaah Islamiyah I learned that some of the sourcing for that financing is from al-Qaeda," Wan Min said.


He said he did not know who decided to release those funds but Hambali at one point sent him a letter asking that five thousand dollars be transferred to Mukhlas through JI operatives in Indonesia.

Indonesian police were also hunting Hambali in connection with the August 5 car bombing at the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta, which killed 11 Indonesians and a Dutch banker.

Bureau Report