Indonesian militant admits taking funds for terror camp

“I never asked but I received money… Rp 40 million from Ubaid and Rp 100 million from Abdul Haris,” Tholut said during his witness testimony given via a video link at Bashir’s trial.

Ubaid and Haris were former members of radical group called Jamaah Ansharut-Tauhid established by Bashir in 2008.

The 72-year-old preacher faces the death penalty over charges including that he led and financed the Aceh training camp,which had planned Mumbai-style attacks using squads of suicide gunmen against Westerners.

Prosecutors say he raised more than USD 140,000 to establish the cell,which was discovered in Sumatra,in February last year. Bashir denies the charges.

“I don’t know Abu Tholut. I know nothing about the training in Aceh. I’ve never met Abu Tholut,” he told the court following Tholut’s testimony.

Tholut,who is also known under a series of aliases,was arrested in December suspected of playing a key role in setting up the camp,recruiting militants and raising illegal funds for terror activity.

Tholut received militia training in Afghanistan during the mujahedeen war against the Soviets in the late 1980s and became a leading figure in Southeast Asia’s Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror network on his return home.

He reportedly sent Islamic militants to fight Christians on Sulawesi island from 1998 to 2001 and served around half of a seven-year prison sentence handed down in 2004 for the bombing of a shopping mall in Jakarta three years earlier.

Tholut,from Central Java,also allegedly helped establish training camps for Islamic militants in the Southern Philippines,including the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group.

Hundreds of suspected militants have been arrested or killed in connection with the Aceh network,including its alleged operations leader Dulmatin,a notorious bomb maker wanted for the 2002 Bali attacks which killed 202 people.