The Jakarta Post, August 05, 2004
Police rush to complete Ba'asyir terror case file
Abdul Khalik, Jakarta
Police are stepping up a gear in their effort to complete the case file on Abu Bakar
Ba'asyir's alleged role in the JW Marriott Hotel bombing here last year, before his
detention period expires in less than two months.
National Police antiterrorism division director Brig. Gen. Pranowo Dahlan said on
Wednesday that in a bid to collect more evidence of Ba'asyir's role in the terror
attack, police investigators were intensively questioning seven suspects now in
detention in Bali, including those who were arrested in the Central Java town,
Sukoharjo, in June. They are also linked to the Bali bombing of 2002.
"We are optimistic we can submit the case file to the prosecutors before the end of
September," Pranowo said. "We simply have to make minor changes to the file and
add more accounts from witnesses we are questioning."
He said more accounts were required from suspects in the Marriott bombing after the
Constitutional Court declared Law No. 16/2003, under which Bali bombers were
charged, unconstitutional because of its retroactivity principle.
Police are now charging Ba'asyir with helping to plan the Marriott bombing on Aug. 5,
2003, which left 12 people dead, on the grounds that he leads Jamaah Islamiyah (JI),
a secretive organization linked to al-Qaeda. JI has been blamed for both the Bali and
Marriott hotel attacks.
"All we have to do now is prove that JI exists and Ba'asyir is the leader of the
organization," said Pranowo.
Police have pointed to witnesses' accounts that Ba'asyir inaugurated many JI
members in Hudaibiyah camp in the Southern Philippines several years ago. The
police also found documents after raiding a house in Semarang last year, which
revealed that Ba'asyir was the JI leader.
Ba'asyir was serving a 18 month-sentence for immigration offenses and document
forgery when the Marriott attack took place. But police said the bombing plan could
have been initiated long before his arrest weeks after the Bali blast on Oct. 12, 2002.
Lawyers of the Muslim cleric have demanded their client's release due to the changes
in the charges. Ba'asyir was originally charged with involvement in the Bali bombing,
which claimed 202 lives.
He was rearrested on the day he completed his jail term, on April 30.
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