The Jakarta Post, December 17, 2004
Ba'asyir prosecution dealt major blow
Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The prosecutors' bid to link Abu Bakar Ba'asyir to the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) group
blamed for a series of bomb attacks in the country was dealt a major blow on
Thursday after three key witnesses withdrew earlier statements that connected the
Muslim cleric to the regional terrorist network.
Two key witnesses, Sutikno and Imron Baihaki, both convicted for taking part in terror
attacks, retracted their earlier confessions to the police that Ba'asyir was the head of
JI and had once visited a Muslim rebel camp in the southern Philippines.
Prosecutors said Sutikno had confessed to being involved in several meetings in the
Puncak area between 2000 to 2003 that discussed the appointment of Ba'asyir as the
head of JI, replacing Abdullah Sungkar who died in late 1999.
"No, it's not true. There was never such an issue brought up in those discussions. The
meetings were only reunions of those who waged a jihad in Afghanistan," Sutikno told
the court.
Self-proclaimed JI member Imron Baihaki, denied earlier claims that he had seen
Ba'asyir at the Moro training camp giving sermons on practicing Islam. He also could
not confirm if the cleric was the head of JI.
"I was only told by a person, Nasir Abbas, that Ba'asyir had replaced Abdullah
Sungkar as the head of JI. Later I discovered that Ba'asyir was not, but was the head
of the MMI (Indonesian Mujahidin Council)," Imron said.
Ba'asyir founded the council shortly after he returned to Indonesia in 1999 after exile
in Malaysia.
Another witness who also withdrew statements given to the police was Muhaimin
Yahya alias Ziad, who denied ever seeing the 66-year-old cleric at the training camp
while he was there from 1999 to 2000.
The three witnesses claimed they had been either forced by investigators to make
confessions or were exhausted when making the statements.
Two other important witnesses called to the stand on Thursday were two other
convicts Surono and Samian.
Samian confirmed that the meetings in Puncak did talk about the replacement of
Abdullah Sungkar as the head of JI, but said he did not recall who the successor was.
All five witnesses all claimed to have met Ba'asyir on several occasions, mostly
during sermons at mosques. However, they denied ever being encouraged by the
cleric to carry out bomb attacks or acts of violence, for which Ba'asyir is being
charged.
The five also denied accusations that JI was a structured organization. Saying it was
simply a literal Islamic term for a Muslim community.
Prosecutors are trying to link Ba'asyir to JI, which has been accused of orchestrating
the 2002 Bali bombings, the August 2003 attack on Jakarta's JW Marriott Hotel, and
this year's September blast outside the Australian Embassy, as well as and other
attacks, including those on churches across the country on Christmas Eve in 2000.
If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of death.
Two other witnesses called to the stand were a JW Marriott hotel security manager,
Haryana, and an employee working for the building's owner PT Permata, Biramasakti
Yuli Tyaningsih. Both told the court about the circumstances at the time of the
bombing.
After the trial Salman Maryadi, who heads the team of prosecutors, immediately left
the court room and refused to comment.
Presiding judge Sudarto adjourned the trial until Dec. 21 to hear more witnesses.
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