The Jakarta Post, 10/20/2002 7:12:56 PM
Abu Bakar Ba'asyir rejects police's detention order
SOLO, Central Java (JP): Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who chairs the
Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI), has rejected the letter of detention issued to him
by the National Police Headquarters, his lawyers said here on Sunday.
The police formally detained Ba'asyir, 64, who is suspected of having links to
terrorism, on Sunday afternoon. However, police said they would allow him to remain
at the Muhammadiyah Hospital here until his health improves.
The national director of criminal investigations, Brig. Gen. Aryanto Sutadi, said the
police officially changed Ba'asyir's status to that of a police detainee at noon on
Sunday.
However, through his lawyers, Ba'asyir said that he was refusing the detention order
on the grounds that the allegations against him were merely slander. "(The detention)
was ordered without any evidence and only to respond to U.S. pressure," Ba'asyir
said through his lawyers.
Ba'asyir, who is receiving medical care at the hospital, said he would go to the
National Police Headquarters in Jakarta to answer a summons for questioning if his
health improved, "but not with the status of a police detainee", SCTV television
reported.
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