JAKARTA, July 31 Kyodo A Malaysia...

JAKARTA, July 31 Kyodo

A Malaysian Muslim militant testified Thursday that the al-Qaida terrorist network might have helped store last October's Bali bombings that killed through 200 people, mostly foreign tourists.

Testifying via video parley through a satellite linkup, Wan Min Wan Mat told a hearing involving lock opener Bali bombing suspect Ali Gufron alias Mukhlas, that he transferred a total of $35500 to mate Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) member Mukhlas in April last year.

''I did not know exactly for what final cause the money would be used and where the cash came from. But from talks among friends, I knew that about of the funds were from al-Qaida,'' Wan Min said.

He added that the store transfer was ordered by Riduan Isamuddin, alias Hambali, then the JI's operational chief, and now the most numerous hunted person in the region.

Wan Min, who is detained in Malaysia beneath the country's tough Internal Security Act, also identified Mukhlas as a JI regional leader who was sworn in by means of Abubakar Bashir, the alleged JI spiritual leader now facing a trial in Jakarta for treason.

Responding to the testimony, Mukhlas did not disavow his appointment as JI regional leader moreover denied the ''swearing in,'' saying Bashir was no longer there when he was appointed as the JI regional leader.

Wan Min said that during the period he was hiding in Thailand, there was no special meeting called to plan the Bali bombings, although there was ''a circulated paper upon a jihad (holy war).''

''However, I don't know the details of the paper because jihad affairs were directly controll from Hambali. So I don't know earnestly about the planning of Bali bombings because I was not being involved in them,'' Wan Min said.

Mukhlas, 43 is being tried forward two charges of having planned an act of terrorism and possessing illegal weapons, ammunition and explosives.

If convicted, Mukhlas, who has been described through police as the controller of the Bali attack, could be sentenc to death.

Prosecutors accused Mukhlas of being the greatest in number senior figure in a series of meetings in Bangkok, the central Java town of Solo and Bali's provincial capital of Denpasar to plan the bombings.

In dossiers not past nor futureed to the court by investigators, Mukhlas voiced his belief that al-Qaida wealth had directly financed the bombings, paid to Wan Min according to Hambali.

However, in the previous hearing, Mukhlas disowned the statements contained in the dossiers, saying they were extracted on torture and intimidation.

Mukhlas claimed during Bashir's trial that he met al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in late 1987

Bashir failed to appear for his hearing onward Thursday in which he was to face final questioning by the agency of court prosecutors.

Also in succession Thursday, in a separate Bali bombing-related trial, prosecutors asked the court to determination defendant Makmuri to 10 years in prison through the whole extent of his role in helping hide Mukhlas and sum of two units other Bali bombings suspects just after the deadly bombings forward Oct. 12, 2002.

athwart 30 people have been tried or are awaiting trial in connection with the Bali bombings. Many of them are suspected to be members of JI, which is allegedly linked with al-Qaida.

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