INDONESIAN authorities believe they have captured a senior Afghan al-Qa'ida-linked figure posing as an asylum-seeker trying to reach Australia. The man, Mohammad Isa, was seized in North Sumatra in April with 10 other illegal immigrants from Afghanistan, and has since been held in the Australian-built Tanjung Pinang immigration detention centre, on Bintan island, near Singapore. He is said to be a medical doctor who speaks eight languages.
| It's not nice to snicker, so I shan't. Sincere congratulations to Indonesia for this legitimate coup. |
The revelation follows information from the head of Indonesia's international crimes unit, Saud Usman Nasution, that Australian Federal Police were helping the Indonesians to compile a database to cross-check asylum-seeker and terrorist connections.
| Building databases is good. Mining the data once it's been assembled is even better. Good move, AFP! |
General Nasution said the arrest marked the first time an asylum-seeker had been linked to potential terrorism. He had previously indicated a suspected asylum-seeker was linked to al-Qa'ida, but this is the first time the man's identity has been confirmed.
The provincial head of immigration in North Sumatra, Sahala Pasaribu, told The Australian he had processed the man after his arrest in April. "We learned from Detachment 88 (Indonesia's specialist anti-terror police squad) that at least one mobile phone held by this group of 11 Afghans had been used to contact senior al-Qa'ida figures," he said.
| Oooooh, a cell phone! We like those. They lead to other cell phones, you see. which lead to... |
Mr Pasaribu's counterpart at the Tanjung Pinang detention centre, Sugiyo, said: "The person you're referring to is still here . . . but we don't have the authority to interrogate him in any context other than that for which he has been detained, which is as an illegal immigrant."
The Tanjung Pinang centre is where the 78 Tamils from the Oceanic Viking were processed last year, before being transferred for resettlement to third countries, including Australia.
Mr Pasaribu said Detachment 88 agents had visited his office, in the port city of Tanjung Balai in North Sumatra, to investigate the al-Qa'ida connection. Tanjung Balai is at the heart of the people-smuggling business in Indonesia as home to undocumented foreign workers as well as asylum-seekers trying to reach Australia using local agents. Indonesian practice is to detain anyone unable to prove they have legitimate documentation, but once asylum-seekers have registered with the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees they are often allowed to live in the community, with assistance from the International Organisation for Migration. |