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House arrest ruled out for Indonesia’s ailing radical cleric
[ARABNEWS] Indonesia’s Ministry of Justice and Human Rights said holy man  Abu Bakar Bashir... Leader of the Indonesian Mujahedeen Council and proprietor of the al-Mukmin madrassah in Ngruki. The spriritual head of Jemaah Islamiya, which he denies exists. Bashir was jugged and then released in the wake of the 2002 Bali bombings, which he blamed on a conspiracy among the U.S., Israel, and Australia ... is ineligible for house arrest, one of the options the government said it was considering as leniency to the ailing holy man. "House arrest is only available for a defendant who is standing trial, while he (Bashir) is no longer a defendant. He is a prisoner, convicted to serve time in prison," Ade Kusmanto, a front man for the ministry’s Directorate General of Correction, told Arab News. Last week, Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu told journalists at the state palace that house arrest for the holy man is very likely, as the government is weighing up which form of clemency it could give to Bashir. The holy man suffers from pooling of blood on his legs, a condition which requires him to undergo regular medical check-ups. On Mar. 1, Bashir was taken to a hospital in Jakarta for treatment which his lawyer, Achmad Michdan, said had been scheduled for Nov. 2017. President Joko Widodo said the government gave permission for Bashir to go to the hospital on humanitarian grounds. Kusmanto said the holy man can ask the president for clemency, given that he is in poor health and will become an octogenarian this year. Another possibility is to demand parole, for which he will be eligible in June 2019 when he will have served two-thirds of his 15-year prison sentence. Talking to Arab News, Michdan said his client rules out both the options since applying for either one would mean that Bashir pleads guilty to the charges against him. Bashir was convicted in 2011 for supporting paramilitary training in Aceh, and the firebrand ... firebrandsare noted more for audio volume and the quantity of spittle generated than for any actual logic in their arguments... holy man is described as the ideological icon of Jamaah Islamia (JI), including those who carried out kabooms in Bali in 2003. "Bashir believes he is innocent because he was merely observing his faith as a Moslem. He was collecting money to fund training and travel for those who wanted to go as mujahideen to Paleostine. He wasn’t rebelling against the country," Michdan said. Michdan said that it should be possible for the government to "relocate the place" where Bashir serves his sentence from Gunung Sindur prison in Bogor, West Java, to his house in Solo, Central Java. He cited examples of tossed in the calaboose Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! former Jakarta governor Basuki TjaHajja Purnama, who is serving his two-year sentence for blasphemy at a special police detention instead of a correctional facility, and East Timor resistance fighter Xanana Gusmao who had been imprisoned in Jakarta when he was fighting for East Timor’s independence from Indonesia. He was then confined to a house in Central Jakarta in 1999. Posted by: Fred 2018-03-06 |
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