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Australians to question Hambali's emissary
A KEY Jemaah Islamiah operative sent to Australia by captured terrorist leader Hambali to set up a terror cell has been questioned by Australian Federal Police investigating the activities of the Sydney and Melbourne terror suspects charged last week.Two AFP officers flew to Kuala Lumpur in August to question Azman Hashim, the JI military expert who ran a paramilitary weapons training camp for Australians in the Blue Mountains. Reports out of Malaysia have said that Hashim, who has been detained under Malaysia's Internal Security Act, had revealed that some Australians had trained in the camp in 2002. The AFP yesterday said it could not comment. Justice Minister Chris Ellison said yesterday two AFP counter-terrorism officers had recently questioned Hashim, but said no direct links had been established to the terrorism-related matters currently before the courts. However, he said Hashim remained a "person of interest" in relation to other counter-terrorism matters. It is understood that Hashim had already answered hundreds of questions posed by Australian authorities over the past year. But police wanted to question him more closely about some new developments. Hashim was sent by Hambali, the JI operations mastermind who was the link between JI and al-Qaeda - to establish a terror cell in Australia known as Mantiqi 4. Terror expert and author of Inside al-Qaeda, Rohan Gunaratna, said Hashim was a "terrorist trainer". "The fact that he has been detained demonstrates his importance," he said. Dr Gunaratna said Hashim was very close to Hambali, and was a "very significant player who had an important role in building the JI infrastructure". Hambali was captured in Thailand in 2003 and is being held in an undisclosed location by US authorities. Australian authorities have been unable to interview him. Hashim is believed to have arrived in Australia in 1998 and and lived on Sydney's northern beaches. He allegedly used false documents to obtain work in a factory making sliding doors. A graduate of Camp Abu Bakar, a JI military training facility in the southern Philippines, Hashim set up the training camps teaching Australians guerilla warfare and weapons handling. Hashim was arrested in Sandakan on February 28, 2003, shortly after he arrived back in Malaysia from Australia. He has been held in the Kamunting detention camp in the town of Taiping ever since. The news of the interviews come as Australia and Malaysia yesterday signed two treaties aimed at strengthening co-operation against terrorism and transnational crime. Senator Ellison and Malaysian Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail signed an extradition treaty and another pact on mutual legal assistance on criminal matters. Canberra has been keen to collaborate and share skills and information on terrorism and organised crime with Malaysia, in the hope the information will help in the hunt for the terrorists who move around the region and "co-locate" in both countries. Posted by: Dan Darling 2005-11-15 |
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