Singaporean JI militant admits terror plots
-
Mohammad Hasan bin Saynudin
I wonder what vocation, rank and from SAF, SCDF or SPF did he did his NS...
Singaporean who met Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan confessed Tuesday to plotting attacks against Singapore's Changi Airport and a US navy logistics centre there, as he stood trial on separate terror charges in Indonesia.
"We did plan to attack Changi airport in 2000 and Sembawang naval base in 1999, but our plan was foiled by the authorities," Mohammad Hasan bin Saynudin, 35, told AFP from his cell at South Jakarta district court.
Hasan also said he was the ringleader of an alleged terror cell rounded up in Sumatra in the middle of last year and charged under Indonesia's anti-terror laws.
The alleged member of Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah said he had been inspired by Al-Qaeda leader bin Laden and wanted to follow his example of "waging war against America".
"In 2000 I went for military training in Afghanistan where I met Osama a few times while he was lecturing and giving his ideology on waging war against America," he said.
Wearing a white turban and looking relaxed as he sat cross-legged in his cell, Hasan said it was permissible to kill innocent people.
"This is a war against America and its allies. As long as the Americans pay tax to their government, they are supporting America" and can be justifiably killed, he said.
Hasan and seven other members of the 10-man group on trial here are facing death sentences for crimes including the murder of a Christian teacher and a plot to attack a cafe frequented by Western backpackers.
He admitted to all the charges, saying the group had not gone through with the bomb plot against Cafe Bedudel in October, 2007 out of concern for Muslim lives.
"We planned to bomb Cafe Bedudel in Bukittinggi (West Sumatra) but on the day itself a woman tourist guide entered the cafe. She was wearing a Muslim headscarf so we cancelled the plan," he said.
"We're not blood-sucking Draculas. At all costs, Muslims should not be sacrificed," he said, adding however that Muslims could be killed as "collateral damage".
His group allegedly shot dead Christian teacher Dago Simamora in June 2007 and planned to kill two Christian priests in Jakarta in August 2006.
Hasan said Simamora, who was shot while riding his motorbike with his child in Palembang, South Sumatra, had provoked the attack by not allowing female Muslim students to wear Islamic headscarves.
Pulling the trigger of an imaginary pistol, he said he was ready to face death as a "martyr" if convicted.
"It's my dream to die as a martyr. It's every Muslim's dream," he said, echoing three Islamists executed in Indonesia late last year for their roles in the Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people in 2002.
A lawyer for Hasan and three other alleged members of his cell earlier Tuesday told the South Jakarta district court they had not intended to spread terror and should be tried under criminal law.
Indonesia's tough anti-terror law criminalises acts such as spreading fear to cause terror and being a member of a terrorist group, which are not covered by the criminal act.
The 10 alleged cell members were arrested in Palembang in late June and early July last year.
Police say they are linked to some of Southeast Asia's most wanted terror suspects, including Mas Selamat bin Kastari, the alleged leader of Jemaah Islamiyah in Singapore who fled detention there last year and remains at large.
Hasan told AFP he did not know where Mas Selamat was.
Singaporean authorities have previously said that Jemaah Islamiyah members including Mas Selamat planned to crash a plane into Changi Airport in 2001.
The US Navy's Sealift Logistics Command Far East centre at Sembawang Wharves, Singapore, is a logistical post for the US 7th Fleet.
- AFP /ir -
Just wandering why this man particular such as address were mention when all singaporean J.I terror team caught in singapore were not mention and News can't even interview this people or their family members. When this man were caught reporters every day interview him. Why?
-
Perception Management.
That Indonesia is effectively nabbing JI Militants.
Btw, did I mention that he even LOOKS like OBL in that picture?
-
Originally posted by rockfire:
Just wandering why this man particular such as address were mention when all singaporean J.I terror team caught in singapore were not mention and News can't even interview this people or their family members. When this man were caught reporters every day interview him. Why?
...because he is in Indonesia.