'Prince Of Jihad' Set To Face Bombing Trial
By Adam Gartrell, South-East Asia Correspondent JAKARTA, Feb 18 AAP - An Indonesian Islamist nicknamed the "Prince of Jihad" will face trial accused of raising funds for last year's Jakarta hotel attacks but prosecutors admit they may struggle to convict him. Prosecutors will allege Mohammed Jibril was linked to terrorist Saifuddin Jaelani, also known as Saifuddin Zuhri, one of the chief planners of the July 17 bombings on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels that killed seven, including three Australians. They will allege Jaelani received funds from a retired Saudi teacher named Al Khelaw Ali Abdullah which he passed on to Jibril to open an internet cafe in 2008. "From this internet cafe they could generate some more money as well as using it as a way to communicate their views to the outside world," prosecutor Totok Bambang told AAP ahead of next week's trial. Before the attacks Jibril, 25, was well-known for publishing a popular radical Islamist website and a glossy magazine called Jihadmagz. He is the son of prominent radical cleric Abu Jibril, a former student of Abu Bakar Bashir, the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah (JI), the group responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings. He is known to have spent some time working with a JI unit in Karachi. Nonetheless, Bambang conceded it had been difficult to mount a case against Jibril. "This is a difficult case because this is the case of funding terrorism," he says. "In funding, it's difficult to get evidence because only several transactions could be traced. "They deliver the money hand to hand, not through bank accounts. "There are very few witnesses for this." Terrorism expert Sidney Jones said the evidence against Jibril appeared weak. "It came as a surprise to a lot of people when he was arrested because he was somebody who seemed all bluster, and not necessarily involved in any way," Dr Jones told AAP. Jaelani was a senior acolyte of terrorist leader Noordin Mohammed Top, who was killed in a police raid in September. After Top's death, Jaelani is thought to have assumed control of Top's violent JI splinter cell, which was believed responsible for a string of attacks in Jakarta and Bali. But Jaelani was himself killed in a separate police raid in October. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
