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Bashir charged over Marriott bombing
Militant Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir was Tuesday charged under anti-terror laws over last year's deadly attack on a Jakarta hotel, but he will not be tried for the Bali bombings, Indonesian prosecutors said. Prosecutor Haryono said Bashir is also charged with heading Jemaah Islamiyah, blamed for both the bomb attack on the August 2003 Jakarta Mariott hotel in which 12 died and the October 2002 Bali blasts that killed 202. Bashir, the alleged chief of the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror group, was formally charged after police handed him over to prosecutors under heavy security in the Indonesian capital. "He has been charged with terrorism," Haryono told reporters. An appeal court last year cleared Bashir, 65, of terror links but upheld a lesser jail sentence for immigration-related offences. Police rearrested Bashir under the anti-terror law when he stepped out of prison on April 30, prompting violent protests by supporters. They had intended to charge him for direct involvement in the Bali bombing, but a ruling by Indonesia's top court last month means that anti-terror laws introduced after the Bali attacks could not be applied retrospectively. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-08-25 |
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