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Top's protectors go on trial in Indonesia
FIVE Indonesian militants went on trial here today, accused of hiding fugitive terrorist leader Noordin Top after a 2004 car bombing outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta that killed 10 people.Police have said the September 9, 2004, bombing was masterminded by Top and fellow Malaysian Azahari bin Husin, who police killed in a raid on his East Java hideout last November. Both Top and Azahari before his death were senior operatives of Jemaah Islamiah, a group seen as al-Qaeda's arm in Southeast Asia. One of the defendants who went on trial was Ahmad Rofiq Ridho, a brother of Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, an Indonesian Jemaah Islamiah operative who was killed in the Philippines after escaping from a Manila jail in 2003. "(Ridho) was indicted for failing to inform on the whereabouts of Noordin Top and the involvement in criminal conspiracies," said Gilroy Noviandi, a member of the defence team representing three of the five defendants, including Ridho. "The charges against the other four were for the same things." Police almost caught Top hours before the raid that led to Azahari's death. Authorities believe he is still in Indonesia. Prosecutors also indicted Ridho for surveying bombing targets in East Java that include a Christian school and a plush hotel. Authorities believe Azahari and Top played crucial roles in other bombings in Indonesia in recent years that have been blamed on Jemaah Islamiah. In the 2004 Jakarta blast, a one-tonne bomb was detonated inside a delivery van just before the driver reached the embassy gate. It ripped open the blast-proof fence of the embassy and badly damaged numerous buildings in one of the city's busiest business areas. Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-01-02 |
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