The Jakarta Post, 4/14/2004 5:46:48 PM
Police to quiz Ba'asyir as terrorism suspect
JAKARTA (AFP): Indonesian police said Wednesday they will question hardline
Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, due to be freed from jail later this month, as a
suspect in terrorism cases.
"There is information, there are witnesses, there is evidence which could be used for a
further process regarding actions of this individual both at home and abroad," national
police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said.
Foreign governments accuse Ba'asyir of having led the Al Qaeda-linked Jamaah
Islamiyah (JI) network blamed for the Bali bombings of October 2002, in which 202
people died, and for a string of other deadly attacks.
The U.S., Australia and Singapore expressed disappointment after Supreme Court in
March halved Ba'asyir's three-year prison sentence for immigration offences and
document forgery.
Ba'asyir, 65, is scheduled to be freed from jail on April 30 but Bachtiar did not specify
when the interrogation would occur. "There will be a questioning of the said individual
as part of the legal process," he said.
He said Ba'asyir would be interviewed as a suspect on charges of perpetrating
terrorist acts.
A police spokesman said last week they would use testimonies and statements from
terrorism suspects detained in the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore "to prove
whether Abu Bakar Ba'asyir was really involved in the Bali bombing and other terrorist
acts."
He said police would also study transcripts of U.S. interviews with top terror suspect
Hambali -- a suspected senior figure in both JI and Al-Qaeda itself -- who has been in
US custody since his arrest last August in Thailand. One week ago police cancelled a
plan to bring Ba'asyir from jail for questioning.
Bachtiar dismissed allegations that the opening of another case against Ba'asyir was
the result of foreign pressure. "We work based on the law and no matter how strong
the pressure we come under. If we have no legal facts and evidence, we will not be
able to do it," he said.
One of Ba'asyir's lawyers, Achmad Michdan, told AFP that an official at Jakarta's
Salemba jail handed him a letter during a prison visit Tuesday "informing my client of
the expiration of his jail term on April 30, 2004".
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