MALAYSIA: Malaysian suspects, members of Jemaah Islamiah terror group have their confessions broadcast on television

Record ID: 629499

  • Title: MALAYSIA: Malaysian suspects, members of Jemaah Islamiah terror group have their confessions broadcast on television
  • Date: 2nd April 2004
  • Summary: SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) POLITICIAN SYED HUSIN ALI SAYING: "I have been an ISA detainee for six years and I know the process of which they try to force people to make confession, not only to force but sometimes to deceive them, you know. Of course I never confessed but these confessions also don't reveal anything you know, because it seldom comes from their heart. That is
  • Embargoed: 17th April 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA
  • Country: Malaysia
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA3UOJ7KY8UU3P2TX106R6TDLNA
  • Story Text: Malaysian suspects admit to being members of terror group and ask for forgiveness.
    Four repentant Malaysians have admitted to being members of the Jemaah Islamiah terror group and apologised for their roles in deadly bomb attacks in Indonesia, saying they were following a fatwa from Osama bin Laden which was "the wrong path".
    The four -- currently in detention awaiting trial in I ndonesia -- made their confessions to a TV station on Friday (April 2) for a documentary that will be screened in Malaysia on Friday night.
    A transcript of TV3's one-hour special, entitled "Confession of JI members", was released to the media on Friday.
    In his confession Mohamad Nasir Abbas said the fatwa (religious edict) calling for "revenge on the Americans"
    was passed to regional terror suspect Hambali and alleged JI leader Abu Bakar Bashir.
    The fatwa meant "we can act by killing American civilians anywhere...irrespective of women, elderly or children," said Nasir, who is the brother-in-law of Mukhlas, one of the men behind the 2002 Bali bombings.
    Indonesian-born Hambali, now in U.S. custody, is the alleged operations chief of JI, the Southeast Asian network linked to al Qaeda and blamed for the Bali bombings in 2002 which killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.
    JI seeks the establishment of a pan-Islamic state encompassing Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the southern Philippines and southern Thailand.
    Another JI suspect who confessed was Amran Mansor, detained over last year's bombing of the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta.
    He said he joined JI in 1995 and claimed that he helped to make a bomb that was used in a church bombing in Indonesia during Christmas 2000.
    Another militant Shamsul Bahri Hussein said the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia was a breeding ground for Muslim militants.
    All expressed remorse at their involvement in JI, saying they had come to realise the movement did not espouse the true teachings of Islam.
    "We are sorry and we deeply regret our actions and we ask forgiveness from God and from the families of the victims," said Nasir.
    "I am very disappointed over what had happened especially the Bali and Marriott bombings," said Shamsul Bahri.
    Amran said: "I have followed a wrong path, which is against the teachings of Koran."
    The decision to televise the March 11 interview has drawn criticism from a rights group which said the move could undermine justice as the men had not been charged or tried in court.
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