Prosecutors Seek Nine-Year Sentence For Saudi ‘Financier’ of Hotel Bombings

Jakarta Globe, Heru Andriyanto, June 21, 2010

Suspected militant Al Khelaiw Ali Abdullah speaks to reporters from behind bars of a holding cell as he waits for the start of his trial at a district court in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Feb. 24, 2010. The retired Saudi Arabian school teacher went on trial charged with financing suicide bombings at two Jakarta hotels that killed seven and wounded more than 50. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

Prosecutors on Monday urged a court to impose a nine-year jail sentence on a Saudi national charged with financing last year’s twin hotel bombings in Jakarta.

Al Khelaiw Ali Abdullah, 54, is accused of providing cash for several members of the terror group that carried out the July 17 bombings after he came to Indonesia on a tourist visa. He is also charged with misusing his travel documents.

“The fact the money was handed over not long before the bombings indicates the defendant acted as a financier,” prosecutor Iwan Setiawan told the South Jakarta District Court.

On Dec. 22, 2008, Abdullah handed over Rp 55 million ($6,105) to Saefudin Zuhri and Amir Abdillah under the guise of buying into an Internet shop, the prosecution said.

Saefudin, the field coordinator in the attacks who died in a police raid several months later, was paid Rp 2.2 million in January 2009.

Iwan said it was common for local terrorists, including masterminds Azahari Husin and Noordin M Top, to receive funding from overseas.

He said Abdullah had known Saefudin and Amir quite well as they had joined in communal prayers together. Saefudin had sponsored Abdullah’s visit and had been involved in the business deals.

“He knew who Saefudin was from his first visit here,” the prosecutor said.

He said Abdullah had twisted the truth and refused to admit wrongdoing, “accordingly we recommend the judges find him guilty of providing assistance to acts of terrorism and misusing his stay permit, and sentence him to nine years in jail.”

Abdullah, who walks with the aid of a cane, shook his head when his interpreter told him the demand and waved his hands to the judges in confusion. He spoke to prosecutors in Arabic but refused to talk to journalists.

“Prosecutors are pushing for the terror charges because an immigration offense is only punishable by five years in jail,” lawyer Asludin Hatjani said. The trial resumes on Thursday.

The Saudi first came to Indonesia in November 2008 on a one-month tourist visa and Saefudin rented a house for him in Bogor.

During that first stay, according to the indictment, Abdullah gave the owner of a medical clinic $1,000, supposedly a downpayment on a $30,000 business deal.

On Dec. 21 Abdullah arrived in Indonesia again, this time on a cultural visa with Saefudin as his sponsor.

Prosecutors say he tried to buy a toy store in Kuningan, West Java, for Rp 90 million but his offer was refused by the owner, Iwan Herdiansyah, who suggested Abdullah open an Internet cafe with a minimum investment of Rp 55 million.

Prosecutors have said opening businesses was a common way for militant groups to funnel funds.

According to the indictment, after receiving the money, Saefudin organized a meeting at Hotel Santi in Kuningan to discuss the bombings with Noordin M Top, JW Marriott florist Ibrahim and Dani Dwi Permana, one of the two suicide bombers.

Abdullah, who was arrested in Garut, West Java, in August, has claimed the money he gave to Saefuddin was payment for his assistance as an interpreter.

Abdullah is the second foreign national to be tried under Indonesia’s antiterror law. The first, Singaporean Fajar Taslim, was given an 18-year jail sentence for leading a terror network in Palembang.

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