Alleged Jemaah Islamiyah chief Abu Bakar Bashir personally called off a planned bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Canberra, a British-born Islamic convert charged with plotting the attack told police.
The testimony from terror suspect Jack Roche was further evidence of Bashir's control of the Southeast Asian, al-Qaeda-linked terror group. In Indonesian custody suspected of terror links, Bashir has denied involvement in Jemaah Islamiyah.
Roche also claimed he went to the US consulate in Sydney and told authorities there, "I've met Osama bin Laden and they [al-Qaeda] have targets in mind,'' he said in taped interviews with police. He said the embassy directed him to Australia's spy agency, where he was not even able to get anybody to listen to his claims.
In videotaped interviews with police that led to his arrest in November 2002 and played yesterday in court, Roche said infighting between Australian members of Jemaah Islamiyah and the group's operations chief Hambali led to the collapse of the bombing plot.
Abdulrahman Ayub and his twin brother Abdulrahim Ayub, widely believed to have headed the terror group's Australian arm, were so incensed at Hambali's interference that they rang Bashir to complain, prompting Bashir to cancel the plot, Roche told detectives.
Roche has pleaded innocent to a charge of plotting to bomb the Israeli Embassy. He faces a maximum 25-year prison sentence if convicted.
In taped excerpts played in Perth District Court this week, Roche has repeatedly named Bashir as the head of al-Qaeda's Southeast Asian terror affiliate. He has also described how the Ayub brothers told him to travel to Malaysia to meet Hambali in early 2000.
Hambali then sent Roche -- 52, an Australian citizen who was born in Hull, England -- to Pakistan and Afghanistan where he briefly met Osama bin Laden and underwent explosives training, the court heard.
While there Roche was told to set up an al-Qaeda cell in Australia and launch attacks against Israeli targets. Hambali gave him US$8,000 to fund the attacks, he said.
On his return, Roche said he informed the Ayub twins about his plans. He said they were "miffed" at Hambali for interfering in Australian operations.
The twins were so angry they complained directly to Bashir, Roche said. Bashir was re-arrested in April on the day he finished serving an 18-month prison term for minor immigration offenses. Police in Indonesia say they have new evidence placing him at the head of Jemaah Islamiyah.
Bashir asked Roche to visit Indonesia to discuss the plot in July 2000, Roche said.
He told Roche "whatever Hambali's asked you to do, just carry on doing that ... whatever it happens to be."
But he said the Ayub brothers "must have whinged to Abu Bakar Bashir, because a few days later I got a call from him telling me to stop whatever I was doing."
By that time, Roche said he'd started "to sober up from this whole experience" and tried to tell Australian spies about the plot, but was ignored.
"I couldn't seem to get past the front desk," Roche said.
Both the Ayub brothers are believed to have fled to Indonesia following raids in November 2002 by Australian police and intelligence agencies in several cities. Roche was arrested during those raids, which came in the aftermath of bombings that killed 202 people on the Indonesian island of Bali.
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