The Jakarta Post, 4/28/2004 3:25:30 PM
Police question detained Muslim cleric
JAKARTA (AP): The alleged spiritual leader of the Jamaah Islamiyah terror group
refused to answer police questions on Wednesday, a day after Indonesia's justice
minister torpedoed U.S. and Australian hopes that the cleric would be kept behind
bars past his scheduled release this week.
Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, 66, is slated to be set free on Friday despite intense pressure
from Washington and Canberra and a series of police statements indicating that new,
incriminating evidence has surfaced.
Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra told reporters late
Tuesday that Ba'asyir would go free as scheduled. He did not elaborate on the
reasons.
Ba'asyir was grilled Wednesday at Jakarta's Salemba prison - where he has been
serving an 18-month sentence for entering Indonesia in 1998 on expired documents -
about his alleged links to terrorist activity.
"Ba'asyir did not want to answer investigators' questions," Brig. Gen. Basir Ahmad
Barmawi said. "He also does not want to sign the record of the interrogation."
The fresh probe is based on new evidence provided by the U.S. government that
Ba'asyir was allegedly involved in a series of terrorist acts such as the Bali nightclub
bombings in 2002.
Ba'asyir's supporters maintain that police are investigating him because of pressure
from Washington, which claims that he heads Jamaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaeda-linked
group blamed for the Bali blasts and other attacks.
Ba'asyir's pending release is a sensitive political issue in Indonesia, where politicians
campaigning for July presidential elections are careful not to appear to be giving in to
foreign pressure.
Many of Indonesia's top Muslim groups have spoken in Ba'asyir's defense, and
demanded that Washington stop meddling in Indonesia's domestic affairs.
Several dozen supporters of Bashir rallied peacefully Wednesday outside the prison,
accusing police of keeping their leader in jail on the orders of Washington.
Ralph L. Boyce, the U.S. envoy here, has flatly denied charges that he has taken
secret missions to keep Ba'asyir in jail.
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