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| Southeast Asia | |
| Bashir's Bali sentence stands | |
| 2005-08-06 | |
| INDONESIA'S supreme court had rejected a final appeal by militant Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir to overturn a 30-month sentence for his role in instigating the Bali bombings, his lawyer said today. "We have not received an official letter of the ruling from the supreme court, but we did receive a verbal confirmation," Muhammad Assegaf said. In March, a Jakarta court sentenced Bashir for his involvement in a criminal conspiracy that led to the October 2002 Bali bombings, in which 202 people, including 88 Australians, were killed, but cleared him of more serious charges of planning terrorist attacks. In May, the Jakarta High Court upheld the ruling against Bashir, whom some foreign governments accuse of being the spiritual leader of the Southeast Asian extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah, blamed for a series of deadly attacks in recent years. Today, Mr Assegaf said the 66-year-old cleric "flatly rejected" the supreme court ruling and deemed it an "act of injustice".
Bashir's lawyers had argued the guilty verdict against him was solely based on an uncorroborated police statement submitted in his trial that was attributed to a key convicted Bali bomber named Utomo Pamungkas, alias Mubarok. Mubarok appeared in the witness stand at one of Bashir's trial sessions but refused to answer questions. Judges said Bashir's words to Mubarok and another convicted Bali bomber Amrozi during a meeting in the Java island city of Solo in 2002 constituted conspiracy. Bashir, according to a statement allegedly made by Mubarok during police questioning, told them, "I leave it up to you," when he was notified by Amrozi that he and his friends were planning "a program" in Bali. Australia and the United States have criticised the sentence as too lenient. They insist Bashir is the spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah militant group blamed for Bali bombings and other deadly attacks. Bashir was arrested a week after the Bali bombings and was first put on trial the following year, but the terrorism charges were thrown out. However he was found guilty of immigration offences and jailed. Police rearrested him in April last year as he left prison after serving the immigration sentence, citing new evidence of terrorist links and of his Jemaah Islamiyah leadership. He will now be freed from prison in September 2007. | |
| Posted by:God Save The World |
| #1 When this mook is done with his state paid for rest and hospital care, which is what his sentence amounts to, the day he is released should be the last one he breathes. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom 2005-08-06 18:32 |