The Age [Australia], March 3, 2005
Acquit fear on Bashir verdict
Students from an Islamic boarding school co-founded by Abu Bakar Bashir demand
his release during a demonstration in Solo, Central Java.
An Indonesian Court will hand down today its verdict on the Muslim cleric accused of
involvement in the Bali bombing, with some experts predicting he may be acquitted.
Prosecutors have asked the three judges to sentence Abu Bakar Bashir to eight
years prison for his role in the 2003 bombing of Jakarta's Marriott Hotel and the 2002
Bali bombings but dropped the primary charges against Bashir because of a lack of
evidence.
Hundreds of Bashir's supporters are planning to come from Central Java for the verdict
and the police presence is certain to be very heavy after a riot in April last year when
Bashir was freed from prison and immediately re-arrested.
Police then charged Bashir with being the head of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah
and said he had visited a JI camp in the Philippines in April 2000 where he allegedly
watched a graduation ceremony for students trained to use weapons.
One of Bashir's lawyers, Lutfi Hakim, said yesterday his client should be freed given
the lack of evidence produced in the trial directly linking Bashir to either the Bali or
Marriott bombings.
"He should be freed because there's no evidence he committed terrorism. This
indictment is even worse than the previous one," he said.
While Bashir has been widely accused by Western governments of heading the
Jemaah Islamiah group and blamed for the Bali, Marriott and Australian embassy
bombings, Indonesian prosecutors have struggled to build a solid case against him.
In his first trial, in 2003, Bashir was not proved to be the head of JI, but was
sentenced to four years' prison on immigration offences committed when returning to
Indonesia from Malaysia without proper documents. In that case, JI members in
prison in Singapore and Malaysia gave evidence about Bashir's role in JI.
In this second trial, which has lasted five months, not one of the witnesses has given
such compelling evidence.
The South-East Asian director of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group,
Sidney Jones, said the prosecutors' task had been made harder by an Indonesian
Constitutional Court decision last year overturning retrospective legislation used to
prosecute the Bali bombers.
"I would not be surprised if he was acquitted because it was a weak case to begin
with and the prosecutors were operating under severe constraints of the Constitutional
Court decision."
Ms Jones said there would be an international outcry if Bashir were acquitted, but it
would be unfair to blame the Indonesian Government.
Copyright © 2004. The Age Company Ltd.
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