The Jakarta Post, 3/8/2005 4:53:11 PM
Ba'asyir appeals terrorism conviction
JAKARTA (AFP): Indonesian Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir on Tuesday filed an
appeal in a bid to overturn a 30-month sentence for involvement in an alleged
conspiracy that led to the Bali bombings.
Lawyers representing Ba'asyir argued that the guilty verdict against Ba'asyir was
solely based on a police statementpurportedly made by a convicted Bali bomber
named Mubarok but whose veracity was not proven during the trial.
A Jakarta court on Thursday sentenced Ba'asyir for his involvement in an "sinister
conspiracy" that led to the Bali bombings but cleared him of more serious charges of
planning terrorist attacks.
Judges said his words to key Bali bomber Amrozi and Mubarok during a meeting in
the Java island city of Solo in 2002 constituted the conspiracy.
The jail sentence has been criticized by Australia and the United States as too
lenient. They insist Bashir is the spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah militant
group blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings and other deadly attacks.
Ba'asyir, 66, was arrested a week after the Bali bombings in October 2002 and was
first put on trial the following year, but the terrorism charges were thrown out.
However he was found guilty of immigration offences and jailed.
Police rearrested him in April last year as he left prison after serving the immigration
sentence, citing new evidence of terrorist links and of his Jama'ah Islamiyah
leadership.
Jama'ah Islamiyah, which wants to set up an Islamic state across Southeast Asia,
has been blamed for a series of attacks in the region, including a suicide bombing
outside the Australianembassy in Jakarta last September that killed 11 people.(*)
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