JI suspects’ assets frozen

“This designation is yet another important step in the ongoing effort by the international community to shut down JI terrorist opportunities in Southeast Asia,” US Treasury Secretary John Snow said.

  

“Today’s action identifies 10 individuals at the heart of the network,” he said in a statement released in Washington before a news conference on the action at an Asia-Pacific economic gathering in Phuket, Thailand.

 

Goals

  

“These terrorists have worked to achieve al-Qaida’s terrorist goals in Southeast Asia,” Snow said.

  

“They have plotted to assassinate international leaders, they have planned and supported attacks such as the Bali bombing – a horrific act that took lives of 200 people and wounded 300,” he added.

  

“We look forward to working with our allies in the region to dismantle JI – to shut down their sources of financing and support, and to eliminate the threat that they present to the people of Southeast Asia,” Snow said.

  

Washington’s decision would freeze assets belonging to the 10 JI members in the United States and prohibit all transactions between them and US citizens.

 

“This designation is yet another important step in the ongoing effort by the international community to shut down JI terrorist opportunities in Southeast Asia” John Snow, US Treasury Secretary

The suspects’ names would be submitted by Washington to the United Nations early on Friday. After 72 hours, providing there were no objections, all UN members would have to freeze the assets, US officials here said.

  

Those names were: Yasin Syawal, Mukhlis Yunos, Imam Samudra, Huda bin Abdul Haq (more commonly known as Mukhlas), Parlindungan Siregar, Julkipli Salim Y Salamuddin, Aris Munandar, Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, Agus Dwikarna and Abul Hakim Murad.

  

The US is also expected to freeze the assets of another 10 JI suspects soon whose names had already been forwarded by an as-yet-unidentified Asian partner to the United Nations as part of a regional effort.

  

Those 10 names had been accepted by the UN on Thursday and would be added to the US list on Friday, officials here said.

  

The United States officially brought JI under its list of “foreign terrorist organisations” in October 2002.

  

JI is blamed for a string of attacks including the Indonesian church bombings which killed 19 people on Christmas Eve 2000, the Bali blasts of 12 October 2002 that left 202 people dead and the August Jakarta Marriott hotel blast that claimed 12 lives.