National

Indonesian Student Alleged to Be Involved in Jamaah Islamiyah
Thursday, 17 June, 2004 | 00:40 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:Muhamad Saifudin aka Mus’ab aka Ayyash bin Abu Amar, 24, a suspect in a terrorism case, was tried at the Central Jakarta District Court on Tuesday (15/06).

Saiduffin, a student of the Hadith faculty at the Abu Bakar Islamic University, Pakistan, was charged of having violated articles 15 and 16 of the Government Regulation in lieu of the State Decree regarding Acts of Terrorism, article 5 sub section 1 of Criminal Code on Terror Acts and State Decree number 9/1999 regarding Immigration.

Saifudin could receive the death penalty should he be proven guilty in this case.

In the indictment, Saifudin was said to have attended a three month military training course in the Hudaibiyah camp, Moro, Philippines, in 2000.

During the course, he and his friends studied how to assemble bombs, topography, infantry tactics and strategies and weaponry.

Following the training, Saifudin then went to Pakistan to study and also changed his name to Mus’ab.

After a short stay in Pakistan, Saifudin, at the request of the alleged leader of the Jamaah Islamiyah organization Hambali, attended another training course for a month in Afghanistan.

“The suspect attended the military training to strengthen the Jamaah Islamiyah organization,” said Ledrik, the public prosecutor in this case.

After this training, Saifudin was requested to help Taliban troops who were attacked by the US some years ago.

Following the war, Hambali requested Saifudin to guide the Al-Ghuroba group in Pakistan.

Together with Gun Gun Rusman, Hambali’s brother, Saifudin explained how to carry out jihad (holy war) deeds by showing a film about the activities of Osama bin Laden, leader of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network.

Due to this, Saifuding is considered to have motivated other people to attend similar military training as he had previously attended.

In addition to Saifudin, three other terrorist suspects, Gun Gun Rusman, Furqon Abdullah and Husni Rijal will also be tried in the same case.

These four people were arrested by the Pakistani intelligence board on September 1, 2003, in their campus as they were alleged to have been involved in a terrorist network linked to Jemaah Islamiyah organization.

However, they were then deported to Indonesia as the Pakistani authorities found no evidences on which they could be charged. (Edy Can-Tempo News Room)