Indonesia Wants Access to U.S. Detainee

In this undated handout picture released by the Malaysian Police Department, shown is Hambali, a senior Al-Qaida operative in Southeast Asia. Indonesia demanded access to the terror suspect, who was once dubbed Osama bin Laden's point man in the region, after receiving confirmation from Washington that he was alive and being detained somewhere in the United States, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Friday September 8, 2006. (AP Photo/Malaysia Police Dept., FILE) (AP)

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesia demanded access to alleged Asian terror chief Hambali after receiving confirmation from Washington that he was alive and being transferred to the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for trial, a Foreign Ministry official said Friday.

The whereabouts of Hambali, once dubbed Osama bin Laden's point man in the region, had not been disclosed since he was taken into U.S. custody three years ago.

Indonesia was told after President Bush acknowledged the existence of previously secret CIA prisons that Hambali was being held in U.S. custody, said ministry spokesman Desra Percaya.

Hambali, also known as Riduan Isamuddin, was listed among 14 prominent terrorism suspects being transferred to the U.S. Navy base in Cuba for trial.

"We got confirmation about where he is, where he will be brought and what will be done with him," Percaya said.

Indonesia wanted to make sure Hambali got a fair trial, he said.

Indonesia has long wanted access to Hambali. He was allegedly the operations chief of the al-Qaida-linked militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, blamed for a string of bombings in the country, including a 2002 attack on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people.

Police argue that Hambali, who was arrested in Thailand in 2003, could provide key information in several terrorism investigations.

However, the U.S. says giving Indonesian investigators access to Hambali could compromise their own investigation of his activities, which reportedly included alleged links to two of the Sept. 11 hijackers and a plan to recruit new pilots for another wave of suicide hijackings in the U.S.

Hambali was among a small group of clerics who fled former president Suharto's Indonesia in 1985 and set up a hard-line religious school in Malaysia. Group members, including Hambali, traveled to Afghanistan to join the fight after the Soviet invasion and became the nucleus of Jemaah Islamiyah.