Bali bombing suspect linked to Bashir

BALI - Indonesia police say their chief suspect in the Bali bomb blasts, a man who has confessed to involvement in the attack, was a student of detained Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir.

Major-General I Made Mangku Pastika, head of the multinational investigation into the attacks, told a news conference on the resort island that Bashir was also a co-founder of the Jemaah Islamiyah militant Muslim network in Malaysia.

It is the first time Indonesia has tied the 64-year-old cleric to Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian militant group that has been linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.

A court in Jakarta yesterday rejected an appeal by Bashir against his detention, declaring the police action legal.

Bashir has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and insists Jemaah Islamiyah does not exist.

Police have been holding Bashir over church bombings in Indonesia in late 2000 and a plot to kill President Megawati Sukarnoputri, but have not tied him to the Bali attack.

"Abu Bakar Bashir is a major preacher who has many students. One of his students is Amrozi," said Pastika, referring to the bombing suspect under detention in Bali.

Pastika said Amrozi had admitted taking Bashir from the cleric's home in the Java town of Solo to a small Islamic school at the suspect's village in East Java.

Pastika said Jemaah Islamiyah was found only in Malaysia. But he pointed to ideological links with a radical Indonesian group that Bashir has openly said he helped set up - the Indonesian Mujahidin Council.

Police have arrested two more men in connection with the bombing, one of whom they suspect stored explosives and weapons for Amrozi.

He was arrested in Tenggulun village and identified as Komarudin.

The other man, arrested in the same village, was identified as Tafsir. An officer said he was believed to be Amrozi's driver.

- REUTERS

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