Sat, Feb 07, 2009
The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network
ByDicky Christanto
A police officer told a Jakarta district court Thursday that terror suspect Muhammad Hasan alias Fajar Taslim, a Singaporean man arrested last year in Indonesia, was part of a terrorist cell operating within his country.
The terrorist network plotted to strike Changi airport with a hijacked plane, witnesses said.
"We received information from the Singaporean police that Taslim was part of Jamaah Islamiyah's Singapore chapter and had planned to hijack and crash a Thai Airways' plane into Changi airport in 2002.
"However, the Singapore intelligence managed to detect them before they could carry out their actions," Yudi Rahmaputera, one of Indonesian police officers who arrested Taslim in Palembang, South Sumatra, told the South Jakarta District Court.
"They fled to Indonesia once they were aware their plans had been detected," he added.
Five police officers were summoned to testify at Thursday's court hearing against Taslim and two other terror suspects.
Yudi said Taslim fled Singapore with terror suspect Mas Slamet Kastari, an Indonesian with Singapore citizenship and leader of Jamaah Islamiyah's Singapore chapter. They entered the country illegally in 2001.
Yudi said initially it was rather hard to detect Taslim's whereabouts in Indonesia because he was constantly on the move.
"He went to Central Java for a little while then moved back to Sekayu regency in Palembang, where he found a job as an English teacher," he said.
Taslim was arrested along with eight other terror suspects grouped under the FAKTA (Anti-Apostasy Forum) in a rented house in Sekayu on June 28, 2008.
The nine terror defendants are undergoing three separate trials at the same court.
The police discovered a bomb hidden in a cabinet inside the home.
They were accused of planning to bomb the Bedudul cafe in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, and were held responsible for planning the assassination of several Christian figures in Palembang and Bandung.
