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| Southeast Asia |
| Bashir all comfy in police hospital... |
| 2002-10-29 |
| Abu Bakar Bashir underwent health tests at a tightly guarded police hospital in East Jakarta on Tuesday, a day after he was forcibly transferred from a hospital in the Central Java city of Solo. Bashir was officially detained in Solo on October 20 after Indonesia came under strong international pressure to crack down on extremist Islamic groups in the wake of the October 12 Bali bombings that killed at least 191 people. Police plan to question the cleric over his alleged role in a spate of church bombings on Christmas Eve 2000, as well as an alleged plot to Megawati Sukarnoputri before she became president. I'm surprised it's gotten to this point, but I expect they'll not notice or explain away as much of the evidence as they can... Bashir adamantly denies being the spiritual leader of the radical Jemaah Islamiyah group, which has been linked to Al-Qaeda. What's he gonna say? "Yeah, I'm in charge of a major terrorist organization"? There are also suspicions that Jemaah Islamiyah might have been responsible for the Bali bombings, although Bashir has not been declared a suspect in the case. The witnesses are all dead, are they? He is now confined to the Kramat Jati Police Hospital’s VIP room, which is being guarded by eight uniformed civilian guards belonging to his Indonesian Mujahidin Council. That's kinda like Don Corleone being under arrest, closely guarded by Clemenza and Tessio... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |