Bashir faces Bali attack charges

[DBAHO]

RADICAL Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has been betrayed by Jemaah Islamiah operatives who will testify to his role in the 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202 people including 88 Australians.

 

senior Indonesian police official said today members of Jemaah Islamiah were under police protection and would testify against the cleric, who is facing charges that he is leader of the al-Qaeda-linked terrorist network.

 

Security ministry official Dharmarwan Ronodituro said new witnesses were ready to testify against Bashir, who was released from jail today after serving time for immigration and fraud offences.

 

"He has been arrested for his role as leader of the group calling itself Jemaah Islamiah," Mr Ronodituro said. "We are optimistic with the preparations by the police that he will be sentenced.

 

Mr Ronodituro said the charges Bashir faced carried a maximum sentence of 20 years and related to a string of bombings stretching back to the year 2000.

 

Bashir, who had a treason conviction overturned by Indonesia's Supreme Court last year, is now to be tried under the country's new anti-terrorism laws.

 

There is also evidence he was involved in the Bali atrocity and the bombing of the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta in August which killed 12 people.

 

Bashir was immediately re-arrested after his release this morning (AEST) and taken into police custody.

 

In the hours before his arrest, Bashir supporters clashed with police on the streets outside the prison. Officers fired water cannons and tear gas at the demonstrators, who had vowed to stop Bashir being taken back into custody.

 

Last September a court jailed Bashir for four years for taking part in a JI plot to overthrow the government but said there was no proof he was the leader.

 

An appeal court in November overturned the treason conviction but ruled Bashir must serve three years for the lesser crimes.

 

Last month the Supreme Court halved that sentence and said time spent in detention counted towards it.

 

Investigators said yesterday they now had enough evidence from jailed JI members in Indonesia and overseas to prove Bashir was the emir, or leader, or JI.

 

Part of that evidence includes accusations that convicted Bali bombers Mubarok and Imam Samudra has visited Bashir at his notorious Ngruki school in Solo, central Java, to explain about their "job" planned in Bali and seeking his permission for the October operation.

 

Other evidence alleged Bashir had inducted JI militants at a secret passing out parade held in a jungle training camp at Hudaibiyah in the Philippines in April 2000, police said.

[DBAHO]

And this,

 

INDONESIAN police today fired tear gas and fought pitched street battles with militant supporters of Abu Bakar Bashir as the radical cleric was re-arrested for links to terrorism, including the Bali bombing.

 

More than 1,000 elite paramilitary police in riot gear, backed by armoured vehicles and fire engines, fired tear gas and water cannons as they were pelted with a hail of paving bricks by hundreds of Bashir's faithful.

 

Police used the paving bricks to return fire on the mob, who emerged from early morning prayer determined to block the cleric's re-arrest.

 

It took over an hour for police to push back the enraged mob, and when Bashir finally emerged just before 7am, the protesters had been replaced by a media throng.

 

The 65-year-old cleric was bundled into the back of an armoured car and taken to police headquarters while helicopters buzzed over the rubble-strewn street below.

 

Police can hold the alleged spiritual leader of the al-Qaeda linked Jemaah Islamiah network for up to six months as they investigate him using tough anti-terror laws put in place after Bali.

 

Investigators said yesterday they now have enough evidence from jailed JI members in Indonesia and overseas to prove Bashir was the emir, or leader, or JI.

 

Part of that evidence includes accusations that convicted Bali bombers Mubarok and Imam Samudra had visited Bashir at his notorious Ngruki school in Solo, central Java, to explain about their "job" planned in Bali and seek his permission for the October operation.

 

Other evidence alleged Bashir had inducted JI militants at a secret passing out parade held in a jungle training camp at Hudaibiyah in the Philippines in April 2000, police said.

 

Hundreds of Bashir supporters were shipped in from Solo overnight to block police outside Salemba Prison, where Bashir completed an 18-month sentence for minor immigration offences before his re-arrest this morning.

 

But police were waiting, with several plainclothed intelligence officers visible outside the prison and some who had apparently been hidden among the protesters through the night.

 

But the violence of the attack still surprised police, 34 of whom were hospitalised as others were treated for cuts and bruises by a fleet of ambulances waiting outside the prison.

 

"They were crazy people," one paramilitary Mobile Brigade officer told AAP as he had a head wound stitched.

 

The mob was also well organised, with nearby shops and houses untouched in the melee, while police vehicles stood beside them with shattered windows and smashed bonnets.

 

Bashir, wearing a skull cap, said little as he was pushed into the back of the van alongside police anti-terrorism director Brigadier-General Pranowo for the short trip to his new home at central Jakarta police headquarters.

 

But Bashir's legal team said they regretted that Bashir was taken by force without any police authorising letter, and after he had previously been cleared of treason charges.

 

"One should not be judged on the same case," senior lawyer Mahendradatta said.

 

Another lawyer, Mohammad Assegaf, blamed international pressure from America and Australia for Indonesia's decision to re-arrest Bashir.

 

"The one who played the biggest role was America, but all American action is always supported by Australia," he told AAP.

 

"This is an intervention in our legal system and an assault on the independence and dignity of our legal system."

 

Police Major-General Makbul Padmanegara said police had acted correctly.

 

"What's clear is that investigators have evidence to do these things," he said.

 

Bashir this week refused to answer a list of 40 police questions covering his relationship with death-row Bali bombers Amrozi, Muklas and Imam Samudra, as well as JI's master bomb maker Dr Azahari Husin, currently on the run in Indonesia.

 

Bashir said Indonesian police had become the hand of "God's enemy, the American government".

 

Although he has described al-Qaeda terror mastermind Osama bin Laden as a true Islamic hero, Bashir has always denied involvement in terrorism and says he is being persecuted because he campaigns for strict Sharia religious law in Indonesia.