Oct. 28
INDONESIA:
Cleric Faces Terror Charges in Indonesia
A militant Islamic cleric accused by the United States of being a key
terror leader in Southeast Asia went on trial Thursday for the 2002 Bali
bombings and last year's J.W. Marriott hotel attack in Jakarta.
About 70 supporters of Abu Bakar Bashir shouted "God is great" when the
66-year-old arrived at the court wearing white Islamic robes and a prayer
cap. The trial is the 2nd time in 2 years the frail cleric has faced
terror charges.
The United States and other foreign governments accuse Bashir of heading
the al-Qaida-linked terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah, and his trial is
seen as a key test of the willingness of secular Indonesia to crack down
on high-profile militants in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
The trial began 8 days after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono took
office promising to battle terrorism.
Bashir appeared before a court set up in a large auditorium in the
Agriculture Ministry because of the high number of expected attendees. The
trial is expected to last about 5 months.
"This trial was demanded by Western governments in collusion with elements
of our government," said Abdul Madjid, a 40-year-old Bashir supporter
outside the court.
"I am convinced that the cleric will be found innocent."
Prosecutors read aloud a 65-page indictment accusing Bashir of heading
Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian network blamed for a series of failed
plots and deadly attacks in the region, including the Bali and Marriott
blasts and a suicide attack last month on the Australian Embassy that
killed 9.
The 2002 Bali bombings at two packed nightclubs killed 202 people, largely
foreign tourists, most of whom were Australian. Seven of the dead were
Americans. 12 people died in the August 2003 Marriott suicide attack.
The main charge against Bashir, filed under an anti-terror law adopted
after the Bali attacks, accuses him of inciting his followers to attack
the Marriott building.
Prosecutor Salman Maryadi accused Bashir of passing on a fatwa, or
religious edict, from al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden to Jemaah Islamiyah
members at a camp in the Southern Philippines in 2002 that "permitted the
waging of war against, and the killing of, Americans and their allies."
A lesser charge accuses Bashir of involvement in the Bali attacks. The
indictment alleges Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, who would later be convicted
along with 35 other militants in the bombings, visited Bashir 3 months
before the attacks to ask for his blessing.
"It's up to you, because you know the situation in the field," Bashir
allegedly said.
Bashir faces the death penalty if found guilty in the Marriott attack or a
long prison term if convicted of the Bali-related charges, which could not
be filed under the anti-terror law retroactively.
Bashir was not required to make a plea in Thursday's hearing. He has
consistently denied any wrongdoing and claims Jemaah Islamiyah does not
exist.
Last year, Bashir was cleared of charges he headed Jemaah Islamiyah and of
involvement in a series of church bombings. The verdict was criticized by
the United States and Australia, which both have publicly called on
Jakarta to put him on trial again.
Before the trial began Thursday, Bashir told reporters that legal moves
against him were being carried out "at the request of (Australian Prime
Minister John) Howard."
Bashir has little active support in Indonesia, but he has received
sympathy from some mainstream clerics and government officials who view
him as a victim of foreign intervention.
Bashir has been in prison since shortly after the Bali bombings.
He was cleared of the terror charges but convicted of immigration
violations at a 2003 trial. He was re-arrested after completing his
sentence in April and has been detained ever since.
Bashir has long campaigned for the introduction of Islamic law in secular
Indonesia. He fled to Malaysia in the 1980s to avoid arrest by former
leader Suharto, who brutally repressed Islamist movements.
Bashir returned to Indonesia in 1998 after Suharto's downfall and began
teaching at a religious school that was attended by many of the Bali and
Marriott bombers.
(source: Associated Press)
*******************
Indonesian Court Told Bashir Incited Attacks
Indonesian Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir went on trial on Thursday
accused of leading an al Qaeda-linked militant network and for using his
"religious charisma" to incite others to carry out bomb attacks.
Prosecutors said Bashir also ordered members of the Jemaah Islamiah group
to disseminate statements from al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden calling for
war against Americans.
His terrorism trial is an early test of promises by new President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono to fight militancy. The U.S. embassy in Indonesia said
the trial could spark violence.
Scores of Bashir's supporters shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) as
police carrying M-16 assault rifles led the bespectacled preacher into
court. Bashir first waved but then silenced his supporters by placing a
finger to his lips.
"It's clear I'm not guilty. I'm sure," the 66-year-old cleric said as he
arrived at the court. He accused President Bush from "Satan America" and
Australian Prime Minister John Howard of orchestrating his trial.
"Everyone knows, school children know, it's Bush and his slave, John
Howard," said a smiling Bashir, wearing a white Muslim skull cap and with
a shawl draped around his shoulders. Prosecutors have charged Bashir with
leading Jemaah Islamiah in relation to a suicide bomb attack at the JW
Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in August last year that killed 12 people, along
with blasts at Bali nightclubs in October 2002 that killed 202.
He could face the death penalty if found guilty.
"The defendant ... planned and or moved other people to conduct terrorism
crimes, on purpose and consciously using violence or the threat of
violence to create the atmosphere of terror, resulting in mass
casualties," said prosecutor Salman Maryadi, reciting the legal article
being used against Bashir. The trial was later adjourned until Nov. 4.
Security was tight. One Bashir supporter punched a policeman outside the
court, prompting a flurry of blows from the officer's colleagues but there
were no other incidents.
Authorities have blamed Jemaah Islamiah for the attacks for which Bashir
is charged, as well as for last month's suicide bombing at the Australian
embassy in Jakarta that killed 10.
Prosecutor Maryadi gave no details of what crimes Bashir planned. But he
said when Bashir visited a Jemaah Islamiah training camp in 2000 in the
Philippines his incitement prompted members to carry out the Marriott
attack three years later.
The indictment said 2 months before the Bali blasts, Bashir met Amrozi,
one of 30 people convicted over the bombings. Amrozi asked Bashir what he
thought if "friends held an event in Bali." Bashir said it was their
decision.
"Teacher (Bashir) possesses religious charisma .... Due to the calls from
the teacher, these people then conducted bomb explosions in Bali," Maryadi
said.
SENSITIVE ISSUE
Plenty is at stake for new President Yudhoyono.
He has pledged to protect Indonesia from terrorism, but many Indonesians
believe the United States is behind Bashir's 2nd trial. 2 Islamist parties
that support Yudhoyono in parliament have also expressed sympathy for
Bashir.
Terrorism laws apply to the Marriott attack, while the criminal code
covers Bali. The terrorism laws were enacted after the Bali blasts and
cannot be applied retroactively.
Maryadi said Bashir had led Jemaah Islamiah since 1999 from an Islamic
boarding school called al-Mukmin in central Java.
The indictment said military training was focused at Hudaibiyah Camp in
Mindanao in the southern Philippines. It said Bashir visited the camp in
April 2000.
"He inspected the troops who formed up lines, wore military camouflage and
were armed with M-16 rifles. He then saw an exhibition that included
martial arts, mortar skills and bomb planting," said the indictment.
Bashir was originally arrested shortly after the Bali blasts, but courts
ruled charges over his leadership of Jemaah Islamiah and links to earlier
violence were unproven.
He instead served 18 months for immigration violations.
(source: Reuters)
PAKISTAN:
Pakistan Court Again Delays Pearl Case Hearing
In Karachi, a Pakistani court on Thursday again adjourned an appeal
hearing for 4 Islamic militants convicted of the abduction and murder of
U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl because a key defense lawyer failed to show up.
British-born Islamic militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh was sentenced to
death by an anti-terrorism court in July 2002 for masterminding the crime,
while his three co-accused -- Sheikh Adil, Fahad Naseem and Salman Saqib
-- were jailed for life.
The convicts appealed to a two-member bench of the Sindh provincial High
Court on July 19, 2002, challenging the verdict. The government also
appealed to the same court, asking for enhancement of the punishment.
However not a single formal hearing of the case has been held so far --
mostly because of the absence of lawyers representing the convicts.
Pakistani law gives a convict the right to appeal in the High Court and
the Supreme Court. But no case can be heard if even one of the lawyers of
the convict is absent.
Given such delays executions in Pakistan are rarely carried out and if
they are it is only after protracted legal wrangling.
On Thursday, the court received a telegram from one of the defense
lawyers, Rai Basheer, saying he could not attend due to illness.
"Defense lawyers are trying to drag the case," deputy prosecutor Habib
Ahmed told Reuters. No date was fixed for a new hearing.
Sheikh is being held at a high security jail in Rawalpindi, while the 3
other convicts are in a prison in the southern city of Hyderabad.
Pearl, 38, was researching a story on Islamic fundamentalism when he was
kidnapped in Karachi in January 2002 and later beheaded.
At least 7 other militants accused of involvement in his murder are on the
run.
In September security Amjad Hussain Farooqi, one of the main suspects
described by authorities as a key link between local militants and al
Qaeda, was shot and killed by security forces in the southern city of
Nawabshah.
(source: Reuters)
