Oct 31 2002 – Indonesian police released facial images of three Bali bombing suspects last night as security measures reached new heights in Australia, with ASIO raids on another two homes yesterday.
In the biggest development in the 19-day manhunt for the Bali terrorists, police released artists’ impressions of the three men.
One, a fat-bellied man with puffy cheeks and lips, has been dubbed “Sleepy Eyes” – and was seen by witnesses acting oddly in the minutes before the blasts.
The head of the Indonesian investigation, General I Made Pastika, suggested the three may still be hiding out in Indonesia to enjoy the “aftermath of their activities”.
“These three people are our suspects,” he said, holding up the images to a packed news conference. “But these three are actually part of a bigger group, possibly between six to 10 people who have been behind the planning.”
In Sydney, one man was in custody after an ASIO raid. The men, Julius Basri, 31, his father Ali, 56, and brother Jaya Fadly, 30, immediately denied involvement in the banned radical Islamic group, Jemaah Islamiah (JI), named in connection with the Bali bombings.
Acting on warrants signed by the Federal Attorney General, Daryl Williams, ASIO and Federal Police – with guns drawn and armed with a sledgehammer – first raided the Lakemba flat of Jaya Basri and his family on Sunday night.
Shortly after 5am yesterday, they arrived with balaclavas, machine guns and helmets to raid the homes of the Suparta and Herbert families in the Perth suburb of Thornlie.
About midday in Sydney yesterday – as Jaya Basri was telling a news conference that he feared authorities would persecute his family – a raid was conducted on the Belmore house of his father, where his brother was taken into custody over an expired visa.
No arrests were made on security-related matters, but more than 80 plastic bags – containing passports, birth certificates, computers, mobile phones, video tapes, books, magazines, a prayer calender and personal papers – were taken away.
The Attorney-General refused to comment on the evidence that led to the raids, but Mr Williams added: “Let me say that everything that is being done is being done in order to ensure that the Australian community is properly protected.
“The operation is only directed at individuals who may have some knowledge of JI in Australia, and was not directed at the Islamic community.”
Suspicions about Jaya Basri appear to have been based on his activism as a lecturer on Islamic beliefs to people in his community – and his attendance at three speeches in Australia by Abu Bakar Bashir, now under arrest in Jakarta and a key suspect in the Bali bombings.
Mr Basri, a married father of two, said he went to the speeches, held at the Tempe and Dee Why mosques, between 1994 and 1997 because he was interested in Abu Bakar’s religious teachings and did not hear him refer to JI.
“They suspect that I am a person with links to Abu Bakar Bashir or even with JI,” Mr Basri said. “They explained to me during the questioning that JI had been listed as a terrorist organisation.”
But he repeatedly denied belonging to JI, said he did not support it or give money to it, and had never heard of it until the Bali bombings. Mr Basri arrived in Australia in 1994 and has applied for permanent residency under the family reunion program. His father, an automotive engineer, migrated from Java in 1986.
Mr Basri said he published a weekly Indonesian-language pamphlet which he distributed at the Zetland mosque. It usually contained news from Islamic Internet sites. He had not published Abu Bakar’s speeches but had written items about him, though not often.
He said he decided to identify himself because he wanted to stress his innocence.
In Perth, Jan Herbert – who lives in the same street as the Suparta family with his wife, elderly mother-in-law and four daughters aged three to 14 – said he was shocked by the dawn raid. “My family is screaming,” he told AAP. Police had asked him about Abu Bakar but he said he was “just a normal visitor” to a lecture in Sydney eight or nine years ago.
The Department of Immigration also picked up six Indonesians yesterday at a Dee Why factory for visa violations. All were worshippers at the Dee Why Mosque. Four are threatened with deportation.
Also from The Sydney Morning Herald:
World Rocked For A Muslim Family Living The Quiet Life
By: Linda Morris and Deborah Cameron
Oct 31 2002 – It was 8.50 on Sunday evening, an hour or so after prayers. Jaya Fadly Basri was shirtless, about to vacuum the floor of the tiny two-bedroom flat he shares with his wife, Zahri, and two children, when he was interrupted by a knock at the door.
“I asked them, ‘Who is it?’ And they said, ‘police.’ And I said, ‘Hang on and tried to grab my T-shirt and they said, ‘No sir, open the door now, we are the police’. I tried to look through the little window at my door and I saw three men with guns.”
The man targeted by the Australian Federal Police just hours after Jemaah Islamiyah’s listing as a global terrorist group remains an enigma.
Authorities spent two hours rifling through computer records and documents, timetables for prayers, even the contents of his rubbish bin, as two officers wearing bullet-proof vests walked the apartment perimeter just in case Mr Basri tried to escape.
He surmises it was his self-published newsletter that brought him to the attention of the security services.
The newsletter, printed on A4 paper in Bahasa every Friday and distributed to mosques, contained news of the Muslim world downloaded from the internet.
While in Australia, Mr Basri admits he also attended “two or three” public lectures given by Abu Bakar Bashir, the spiritual leader of the group suspected of the Bali bombing. The latest of these was in 1997, he said.
He denied publishing the writings of Abu Bakar, only news of the cleric’s activities, and then “not very often”.
Did he believe in a violent struggle to promote Islam? “No, I condemn that.”
Did he ever talk about violence to Indonesian people? “Definitely not.”
Did he talk about jihad? “Yes, because that is part of our religion.”
Yet Jaya Basri was not known as a hothead, espousing views of violent struggle. He worshipped at the Zetland Mosque, as well as the Al Hijarah Mosque at Tempe, two of the main centres of worship for the Indonesian community.
Both mosques lie close to Mr Basri’s workplace at Alexandria where he is a screen printer.
By his own admission, he was active in the Indonesian community and gave the occasional community lecture but his lawyer, Stephen Hopper, said he does not belong to any one association, let alone a union.
Local Islamic leaders struggled yesterday even to place his face among their flock.
Amjad Mehboob, chief executive of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, said Mr Basri was likely one of many people to congregate outside the mosque after prayers to distribute leaflets.
“I can honestly say I can’t put a face to a name,” he said.
Gabr Elgafi, chairman of the Supreme Islamic Council of NSW, said he did not know Mr Basri but others he had spoken to described the 30-year-old as “quiet and harmless”.
“I know the high-profile leaders and he is not one of those,” Mr Elgafi said.
But the Basri name is known to Sheik Amin Hady, who leads prayers at the Zetland Mosque.
He and Mr Basri had met at least once, he told the Herald, but refused to answer further questions.
The Herald understands that Sheikh Hady has not been interviewed by ASIO or the Australian Federal Police.
Mr Hopper said he believed an informant had named Mr Basri to ASIO, prompting the raids.
He said Mr Basri and his family would have agreed to be interviewed by ASIO if they had been asked. They had volunteered to co-operate with the investigation.
“He abhors violence and would speak out against anyone who wanted to commit a violent act,” Mr Hopper said. “He would be the first one to go to the police if he knew that anyone was attempting to plan a terrorist act in Australia.”
Mr Hopper questioned the evidence that the Government has against Mr Basri and said he would consider a challenge to the legality of the warrant.
Neighbours say that Mr Basri lived a quiet life with his family. They said hello to the children in the stairwell but none considered themselves family friends.
His father, Ali Basri, emigrated to Australia from Java in 1986. Jaya joined his father in Australia in 1994 and is applying for permanent residency under the family reunion program.
Mr Basri and his wife moved into the middle floor unit in Capri Court, a nondescript red-brick apartment block at the southern end of Haldon Street, Lakemba, a year ago. It was here that Zahri brought home her newly born son, Mohammad Alghazi, seven months ago.
“They are a very good couple, they are very reserved,” said a neighbour, who declined to be named. “Zahri has been very traumatised by the experience.
“I’m saying they are harmless. They are good practising Muslims. Nowadays the connotations are terrorist but to us it means they take care of their neighbours. They are good to each other.”