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JAKARTA - A Singaporean terrorist suspect told an Indonesian court on Thursday he had plotted to bomb the city state's Changi airport in 2002, but the plan had been cancelled.
Mohammad Hasan bin Saynudin told the South Jakarta district court that he and Mas Selamat bin Kastari, the alleged leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah regional terror network in Singapore, had planned the operation in Bangkok.
"I left Singapore in 2002 with Mas Selamat Kastari and went to Bangkok, and in Bangkok we planned to bomb Changi airport, but the plan was cancelled," he said.
He said nothing more about the plot in court, but prosecutor Totok Bambang told journalists later that Indonesian authorities believed the plan was called off at the last minute.
"Hasan... had obtained a ticket from Bangkok to Singapore on Aeroflot and he read a newspaper story that morning which said something about the bombing of a plane, so he thought better to cancel the plan since security at Changi airport would surely have been tightened," he said.
The prosecutor said Hasan, who claims to have met Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in 2000, then entered Indonesia where he is on trial for leading an alleged terrorist cell linked to some of the region's most wanted militants.
The group was planning to bomb a backpacker cafe in the tourist town of Bukit Tinggi, West Sumatra, and to kill two Christian priests in Jakarta in August, 2006, according to the prosecution.
They also allegedly attacked Christian priest Yosua Winardi with a hammer in the same year and murdered Christian teacher Dago Simamora in June 2007.
Hasan was giving evidence on Thursday in the trial of one of his alleged conspirators.
He told AFP from his remand cell in January that he had planned an attack on Singapore's international air hub, and confessed to leading the Indonesian cell.
He said he had been inspired to wage jihad or "holy war" against the West after meeting Osama.
Hasan is one of 10 terror suspects arrested in Palembang, South Sumatra, in June and July last year. - AFP/vm
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