San Francisco Chronicle, Wednesday, July 28, 2004
Indonesia says it won't charge radical cleric in Bali bombings
CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press Writer
(07-28) 10:03 PDT JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Indonesian police dropped plans
Wednesday to charge a radical cleric in the 2002 Bali bombings, but said the man
Washingtonn accuses of being a terror mastermind in Southeast Asia will remain in
jail.
The 65-year-old Abu Bakar Bashir will be charged with other crimes, including heading
the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror group and a deadly suicide attack last
year on Jakarta's J.W. Marriott Hotel, chief detective Suyitno Landung said. Jemaah
Islamiyah was blamed for both attacks.
The announcement followed last week's landmark ruling by the Constitutional Court,
which barred the retroactive use of an anti-terror law rushed through parliament after
the Bali bombings. The explosions killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.
Lawyers for 32 militants found guilty in the Bali attacks have vowed to appeal, despite
court and government officials who have insisted the ruling cannot be applied
retroactively and won't affect the convictions.
Bashir, Indonesia's best known Islamic militant, was arrested under the anti-terror law.
His lawyers have argued he should be immediately released. Attorney Wirawan
Adnan said the decision to drop the Bali charges showed the police case against
Bashir was weak.
"They are trying to find whatever reason they can to keep him in jail," Adnan said.
"This only proves they are doing this because of foreign influence."
Bashir has long proved difficult to convict on terror charges. The slender,
white-bearded preacher, an admirer of Osama bin Laden, was first arrested three
weeks after the Bali bombings amid intense international pressure for Indonesia to
crack down on extremism.
He denies any involvement in terror, and prosecutors failed to make terror and treason
charges stick, but Bashir was sentenced to three years in prison for immigration
violations. That ruling was later cut in half on appeal.
Police immediately arrested him when he was released from prison in April, and said
they intended to charge him in the Bali blasts using the anti-terror law.
On Wednesday, Landung said the Constitutional Court ruling had forced them to
rethink their strategy.
"We are now working on our charges that he is the leader of Jemaah Islamiyah and is
responsible for other bombings," he told reporters.
Landung said prosecutors were still trying to determine if parts of the anti-terror law
could be applied to Bashir. His trial is expected to begin later this year.
Justice Minister Yusril Mahendra said Monday that the Constitutional Court ruling had
hampered the case against Bashir, but insisted he would remain in jail.
Earlier this year, U.S. Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge said in Jakarta that Bashir
had "intense and deep involvement in the planning and execution of terrorist
activities." Australia's foreign minister called Bashir a "loathsome creature" and said
he should remain behind bars.
His case is sensitive in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.
Authorities want to be aggressive in the U.S.-led anti-terror war while not being seen
as subject to Washington's influence.
Bashir fled to Malaysia in 1985 to escape a crackdown on Islamic radicals by
ex-dictator Suharto. He returned to Indonesia after Suharto's fall in 1998 and pressed
ahead with his mission to replace the secular government with an Islamic state.
He co-founded a boarding school on the island of Java. Dozens of students have
become terrorists, including several ringleaders in the Bali attacks.
™ © 2004 Hearst Communications Inc.
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