[AFP] Hundreds of supporters of a jailed Indonesian extremist chanted "Allahu akbar!" outside court Tuesday, as the radical cleric tried to overturn his conviction for funding a terrorist group. Just 12 days after a deadly gun and suicide bomb attack in Jakarta, security was tight as Abu Bakar Bashir returned to the Central Java court to challenge his 15-year sentence for helping fund a militant group in western Indonesia. Around 1,500 security personnel were deployed to secure the streets around the courthouse, far more than at Bashir's last hearing which took place just two days before the terrorist attack.
Wearing a flowing white robe and a turban, Bashir spoke little during the hearing but his supporters were vocal, shouting at the judge and prosecutors. One of them cried, "Free Bashir, he is not a terrorist!"
Bashir's lawyers argue that money he collected was intended to help people in Palestine, but was sent to a militant group in Aceh without his knowledge.
Though Bashir's influence has waned, hundreds of his followers – along with supporters of the hardline Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) – packed the court and spilled out onto the forecourt, where police kept watch with a mobile water cannon.
"I have been here since yesterday to support Bashir and Habib Rizieq," said one outside the courtroom, the latter a reference to the FPI founder who gave evidence Tuesday.