P

olice are still investigating any financial links Muhammad Jibril may have with terrorist operations, despite protests from his family, the National Police have said.

"We highly suspect that he was involved in financing acts of terrorism. Therefore we need to dig for more information and that cannot be done overnight," National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Nanan Soekarna told journalists in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Nanan said Jibril had potentially been in contact with another suspect, Ali Muhammad bin Abdullah (alias Al Khalil Ali). Ali, a Saudi Arabian national, is also accused of being an international courier of terrorist finances.

The police are currently looking for any information that could link the two suspects to al-Qaeda - Osama bin Laden's global terror network - or to its regional arm, Jemaah Islamiyah, Nanan said.

"We will explain it later on. Just give us some room right now," he said.

Muhammad Jibril, who goes by the aliases Muhammad Jibriel Abdul Rahman and Muhammad Ricky Ardhan, was arrested on his way home in Bintaro, Tangerang, on Tuesday evening by the police counterterror squad.

The arrest came just hours after police upgraded his status to "fugitive."

Muhammad Iqbal, Jibril's father, denied his son had held the terrorist funds from Indonesia and abroad used to finance July's hotel bombings in Jakarta.

"How can somebody like him, who still asks for money to meet his daily needs, be capable of seeking funding for terrorist activities. It just doesn't make sense at all," Iqbal said.

One of Jibril's lawyers, Muhammad Hariyadi, said the family planned to file a report to the Tangerang District Court against the police.

"The report will act as a protest to Jibril's sudden arrest," he said.

The law regarding counterterrorism allows police to detain anybody accused of being linked to terrorism for seven consecutive days without legal assistance. The law was designed to allow police to gain as much information as possible from suspects.

Psychotherapist Mardigu WP, who regularly assists police in interrogating suspects, said based on his experience it would not be surprising if Jibril's father had no idea about his son's actions.

"If it is true that Jibril was acting as a courier for terrorist funds then more likely than not he would have hidden this from his family. Sharing that information even with your family could endanger the whole operation," he said.