The majority of overseas funding for a string of terrorist attacks in Indonesia, including last month's twin hotel bombings in Jakarta, came from the Middle East, officials say.   

Police confirmed in Jakarta on Wednesday they had detained a Saudi Arabian national suspected of trafficking cash funds to Noordin M. Top and Jemaah Islamiyah, the terrorist group believed to be the regional arm of al-Qaedah.

Head of the Counterterrorism desk at the Office of the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Insp. Gen. (ret) Ansyaad Mbai, said the money could have originated from personal or charitable sources in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia.

“The problem is that the money was not transferred via banks. This has happened in Indonesia and other countries [in the past] and it makes it difficult to trace the source,” Ansyaad told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

“They [terrorists] understand the government could freeze any money if it was transferred through the banking system. Therefore they use couriers to channel the funds.”

Though revelation on  suspected foreign sources of funding is rare from officials, Ansyaad  said the involvement of overseas donors from the Middle East had been known since the bomb attacks in Bali in 2002 and those against the Marriot hotel in 2003.

Indonesian police are intensifying their efforts to trace the money used to fund the July 17 attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels that killed nine people and wounded more than 50.

The police confirmed Wednesday that they had arrested two people, identified only as Ali and Iwan, in different parts of West Java.

“The police are investigating the involvement of the two suspects in channelling the money used in the recent bombings,” National police spokesman Nanan Soekarna said in a press conference Wednesday.

“We suspect he [Ali] is a Saudi Arabian citizen, but we still need to prove whether his citizenship is fake or not,” he said.

Nanan said the police originally planned to spy on Ali and Iwan but a media leak forced  them to arrest the suspects instead.

A police investigator earlier identified the two men as Ali Mohammad bin Abdullah, a Saudi Arabian national, and Iwan Herdiansyah, a Kuningan resident in West Java. Both are suspected of acting as couriers for the money used to fund the Jakarta bombings in early July.

Intelligence expert Dynno Chreesbon said the police were still hunting another Saudi Arabian citizen who together with Ali allegedly passed on funds to Syaifudin Zuhri bin Djaelani Irsya. The latter is suspected of having recruited the suicide bombers for the attacks.

“Based on intelligence I have received, Syaifudin has been sighted around Bogor, Kuningan and Majalengka with men of Middle Eastern nationalities since July 2008,” he told The Post.

“Ali and his friend provided Rp 1 billion to Syaifudin to finance the bombings in Jakarta.”

The head of the Financial Transaction Report and Analysis Center (PPATK), Yunus Husein, said his office had detected at least 80 financial transactions between 2004 and 2009 that were allegedly related to terrorist activities.

The police have also announced the names of three individuals they suspect of having been involved in July's bombings.  

They are Mohammad Syahrir aka Aing, Bagus Budi Pranoto aka Urwah and Ario Sudarso aka Suparjo Dwi Anggoro.

Bagus has been convicted on terrorism charges in the past for harboring terrorists Azhari and Noordin M. Top, but has since been released.

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