Alleged terrorism financier to go on trial in Indonesia’s deadly twin hotel bombings

Indonesian to stand trial over hotel bombings

JAKARTA, Indonesia — An Indonesian militant flew to Saudi Arabia to raise money to finance suicide attacks on two Jakarta hotels that killed seven and injured more than 50, prosecutors will allege in court Tuesday.

According to an indictment seen by The Associated Press, prosecutors say 25-year-old Mohammad Gabriel Abdul Rahman had ties to alleged regional terrorist mastermind Noordin Top and tried to raise money to fund the July 17, 2009, bombings at the J.W. Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels.

Rahman, who has been charged with violating the country’s Anti-Terror Law, goes on trial Tuesday at the South Jakarta District Court. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. Rahman has denied any involvement in the bombings.

The indictment says Rahman met Noordin — who allegedly had ties with al-Qaida and was blamed for a string of deadly bombings before he was killed last year in a shootout with police — about a year before the hotel bombings. After that meeting, it says Rahman sent an e-mail to his brother Ahmad Isrofil Mardhotillah, who was in the Saudi holy city of Mecca, saying: “I have met with N. we talked long in car … Preacher N needs 100 million…”

Rahman and another suspect in the bombings, Syaefudin Zuhrithen, then flew to Mecca to arrange terrorism financing, the indictment alleges. Zuhrithen was later killed in a police raid. The indictment did not specify how much money they raised and whether any reached Noordin.

Police have killed six people and arrested more than a dozen suspects in the hotel bombing investigation.