Lawyer wants US to get Hambali to talk

Post Reporters

A Cambodian lawyer has urged the United States to extract a written statement from chief terrorist suspect Riduan Isamuddin, who is better known as Hambali, which could vindicate his clients, two Thai Muslims convicted of colluding with Hambali in plotting terrorist attacks.

Cambodia's Supreme Court in March upheld a term of life imprisonment imposed on two Thai Muslims and a Cambodian Muslim convicted of collaborating with Hambali in plotting a terrorist attack against foreign embassies in Phnom Penh between 2002 and 2003.

The two convicted Thais are religious teachers Abdul Azi Haji Chiming and Muhammad Yalaludin Mading.

Five Islamic groups in Thailand are discussing what they can do to help the men. They may ask to have the men serve their remaining prison terms in Thailand, or seek a royal pardon.

However Kao Sopha, the lawyer representing the men, insisted such an avenue would only amount to an admission of the prisoners' guilt.

His clients did not commit any crime, he said in Bangkok yesterday. But he said he was open to the possibility of the men serving their sentences in Thailand in a prisoner exchange programme.

The 37-year-old lawyer is in Thailand to visit the convicts' families and talk to support groups in Bangkok and Yala.

He said the US should ask Hambali to make a statement which would declare once and for all if his clients were guilty.

Hambali was a key member of the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) extremist network which authorities believe was responsible for numerous attacks, including the 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202 people. Hambali spent months in Cambodia before being captured in Thailand in 2003.

Khunying Amporn Meesuk, of the National Human Rights Commission, said the government has suggested to Cambodia that the prisoner exchange programme be implemented, but Phnom Penh has not responded.

Meanwhile in Pattani, a kamnan (district chief) was shot dead by gunmen on his way home in Muang district yesterday.

The victim, Dueramae Jehteh, 64, was a kamnan in tambon Klong Maning.

Police said Dueramae left a teashop and headed home when four gunmen on two motorcycles approached and opened fire on him.