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| Southeast Asia |
| Court ruling may spark Bali Bombers to appeal |
| 2004-07-23 |
| Several of the Bali bombers may launch fresh appeals following a ruling by one of Indonesia's highest courts that anti-terrorism laws used to convict them violated Indonesia's constitution. However, there was confusion over whether the landmark decision would clear the way for the overturning of Bali bombing convictions. The Indonesian Constitutional Court ruled that retrospective anti-terrorism laws introduced by the government last year, and used against all of the bombers, were "against the spirit" of the 1945 constitution. Citing United Nations and other international human rights conventions, including the US convention, the court said in a majority 5-4 decision that the use of retrospective law had violated those basic rights. It also said the bombings, which killed 202 people including 88 Australians, could not be categorised as an attack so brutal that it overrode human rights guarantees. "The Bali bombing cannot be categorised as an extraordinary crime," the court said. It is an ordinary crime that is very cruel." The ruling opened the door to possible appeals by the Bali bombers, including death-row inmates Imam Samudra, and brothers Amrozi bin Nurhasyim and Mukhlas bin Nurhasyim. It may also complicate efforts to prosecute other jailed militants, including Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged head of Jemaah Islamiah, the al-Qaeda linked terror group blamed for the Bali bombings. Questions will now hang over Bashir's trial, as police had planned to use the anti-terror laws against him. The court's decision was a surprise given the immense political pressure from the government to shore up the Bali trial process. But the court is new and considered free of the political interference and corruption which plagues Indonesia's legal system. |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |