Homeland Security

DATE=10/26/04

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=INDONESIA / TERROR VERDICT L-ONLY

NUMBER=2-319909

BYLINE=TIM JOHNSTON

DATELINE=JAKARTA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

HEADLINE: Indonesia Sentences Hambali's Brother for Funding Terror

INTRO: An Indonesian court has sentenced the brother of one of Southeast Asia's most notorious terror suspects to four years in prison. Rusman Gunawan was found guilty of funding the 2003 car bomb attack on the J.W. Marriott Hotel in the Indonesian capital. Tim Johnston has more from Jakarta.

TEXT: The 27-year-old Rusman Gunawan, known as Gun Gun, was found guilty of supplying some 30-thousand dollars to intermediaries of his brother, Hambali, for use in terrorist attacks. Those attacks included Jakarta's Marriott Hotel bombing in August 2003, which killed 12 people.

Intelligence experts believe Hambali was the operations chief of the Southeast Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, and its main contact with the al Qaida network. Hambali is currently being held by U.S. security forces at an undisclosed location after being arrested in Thailand last year.

Gunawan was arrested along with a number of other Indonesian students at an Islamic university in Pakistan's port city of Karachi, which has itself been the scene of a number of terrorist attacks.

Gunawan, looking relaxed in a short-sleeved shirt and slacks after the sentencing, spoke to reporters.

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Gunawan says he is innocent and is considering an appeal.

President Bush once described Gunawan's elder brother Hambali as "one of the world's most lethal terrorists." He is accused of being the mastermind not only of the Marriott bombing, but also the nightclub attack on the tourist island of Bali two years ago, which killed 202 people.

Even though dozens of Jemaah Islamiyah members have been arrested and more than 30 convicted of terrorist crimes, a number of key players remain at large, and experts say the group is still dangerous. They believe the attack on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta last month was also a J-I operation. (Signed)

NEB/HK/TJ/JJ/MAR/AWP