Paras Indonesia, June, 07 2006 @ 10:29 am
Baasyir's Lawyers Wary Of Rumsfeld's Visit
By: Roy Tupai
Radical cleric Abu Bakar Baasyir is due to be released from jail on June 14 after
serving 29 months for his role in the October 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed
202 people, but his lawyers fear this week's Jakarta visit by US Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld may be used to pressure Indonesia to keep him incarcerated.
Rumsfeld arrived in Jakarta on Tuesday (6/6/06) on the last leg of a three-nation
Southeast Asian visit to boost military ties and security cooperation. He earlier visited
Singapore and Vietnam.
Mohammad Assegaf, a senior member of Baasyir's team of lawyers, said Rumsfeld's
visit might have a hidden agenda, as it occurs just a week before the cleric will be
freed.
"We must continue to be alert and concerned, because just as Abu Bakar Baasyir is
about to go out, Donald Rumsfeld comes to Indonesia," he was quoted as saying by
detikcom online news portal.
He said the defense team is suspicious because the government in the past found
new reasons to keep Baasyir in jail after the expiration of his previous jail terms.
Assegaf said the government is easily susceptible to foreign intervention, as seen
when Baasyir was denied a sentence remission during last year's Islamic holiday of
Idul Fitri when thousands of other prisoners had their jail terms cut. "At that time we
wanted to object, but Abu Bakar Baasyir forbade us," he said.
Another of Baasyir's lawyers, Mahendradatta, told the Associated Press he hoped the
government would not bow to foreign pressure by finding another reason to keep the
cleric in jail.
The US, Australia and Singapore have accused Baasyir of being the spiritual leader of
regional terrorism network Jemaah Islamiyah. The US Treasury Department's Office of
Foreign Assets Control recently declared Baasyir a Specially Designated Global
Terrorist and said any bank accounts or other financial assets held by him in the US
would be frozen.
Baasyir was in September 2003 sentenced to four years in jail for treason and
falsification of immigration documents, but acquitted of being the leader of Jemaah
Islamiyah. His treason conviction was later overturned and his sentence cut to 18
months. When released in April 2004, he was immediately rearrested on terrorism
charges, including conspiracy, plotting attacks and ties to Jemaah Islamiyah.
In March 2005, he was sentenced to 30 months in jail for involvement in a "sinister
conspiracy" that led to the Bali bombings. His sentence was controversially reduced
by a hefty 4 months and 15 days as part of annual remissions granted to
"well-behaved" prisoners on August 17, Indonesian Independence Day. But he was
denied an Idul Fitri remission later that year after complaints from Australia and the
US.
Justice and Human Rights Minister Hamid Awaluddin has denied that Indonesia will
again be pressured into keeping Baasyir behind bars. The cleric's supporters have
said that upon his release next week, he will return to his al-Mukmin Islamic Boarding
School in the Ngruki neighborhood of Solo, Central Java, to seek medical attention
and resume teaching. Several terrorist bombers have been educated the school, but
the government has rejected foreign pressure to close it down.
US and Indonesian officials have not said whether Baasyir was on the agenda for
Rumsfeld's visit.
Rumsfeld responded cautiously when asked if he was concerned by Baasyir's
impending release. "I'm not knowledgeable enough to express concerns or absence of
concerns because I don't know precisely what is going to happen," he was quoted as
saying by the Associated Press.
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