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Southeast Asia
Bashir misses out on getting jail term cut
2005-11-03
Firebrand Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has missed out on a cut to his jail term, in a surprise move which has outraged his followers. Bashir's personal aide Hasyim Abdullah told AAP that the 67-year-old was not included in remissions granted to Indonesian prisoners to mark the end of Islam's Ramadan fasting month. "He did not get it," he said. Abdullah said the denial was the direct result of Australian "meddling" in Indonesia's justice system.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer travelled to Jakarta last month to try to persuade President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to block sentence reductions for people convicted of terrorist offences. But Mr Downer said he had not expected Indonesia to agree after Justice Minister Hamid Awaluddin said remissions for Thursday's Eid al-Fitr Muslim holiday, known as Lebaran, would go ahead according to existing regulations.

A spokesman for the Bashir-founded Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia, or Indonesian Council of Holy Warriors, said the elderly cleric, jailed in March for conspiracy in the 2002 Bali bombings, appeared to one of the few prisoners to miss out. "We deplore the Australian regime which is clearly intervening in his judicial process," the MMI's Fauzan al-Anshari told AAP. "But Ustadz (honoured cleric) Abu told me he accepts the decision with an open heart. Hopefully there is a blessing in disguise from Allah."

Fauzan urged Bashir's followers and "all Indonesian Muslims" to remain calm, including the cleric's students from the radical Ngruki school in the central Java city of Solo, who rioted when Bashir was rearrested last year."We advise all his followers to be patient and not be emotional," he said. Lawyer Mohammad Assegaf said he was still waiting to be informed of the decision. The decision will please Canberra and the United States, which believe Bashir is the spiritual leader of the al-Qaeda linked Jemaah Islamiah terrorist movement.

But the head of the terrorism desk at Indonesia's Security Ministry, Major-General Ansyaad M'bai said he did not believe there would be a backlash among Bashir's followers in the paramilitary Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia, or Indonesian Council of Holy Warriors. Camouflage-clad MMI supporters and members of the terrorist-linked Islamic Defenders Front led rioting in Jakarta and Sumatra last April after Bashir was rearrested in a move which ultimately led to his jailing in March this year for conspiracy in the 2002 Bali bombings. "I don't think it will happen again," M'bai told AAP. "I think the terrorists and MMI are already angry at us, so it will not make any difference whether he gets the remissions were given to him or not.

"They will still be angry."
Posted by:Dan Darling

#6  cingold: No Western (or Australian) court would have ever convicted him of anything given the p#ss poor evidence that was available.

Good to see you back. But I'll have to disagree with you there, with respect to American courts. Receiving terrorist funding from abroad would have been cause for his indictment and conviction. Urging the killing of infidels would have been cause for his indictment and conviction. Two Muslims have been jailed for precisely those offenses - one a professor in Florida and another an imam. I believe the terms are 5 to 10 years, and they're not even connected to a specific terrorist attack. This - and the fact that many American Muslims are patriotic individuals* who will go straight to the FBI - is why terrorist wannabes in the American Muslim community are keeping their noses clean.

* Despite their disagreements with American foreign policy.
Posted by: Elmenter Snineque1852   2005-11-03 22:21  

#5   . . . basically, the muscle are free to roam the streets . . .

In at least one notable and serious case, that's our fault:
A suspected top al-Qaeda operative who escaped from a U.S.-run detention facility in Afghanistan poses a serious threat to Southeast Asian security, anti-terror officials said Wednesday. Some said Washington failed to tell them Omar al-Farouq was free. Al-Farouq, born in Kuwait to Iraqi parents, was considered one of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants in Southeast Asia until Indonesian authorities captured him in 2002 and turned him over to the United States.
See Link. It might make some sense to give the Indonesian government some credit for what it's done since 9/11/2001. As noted in the above story,
I think the terrorists and MMI are already angry at us, so it will not make any difference whether he gets the remissions were given to him or not. They will still be angry.
The islamofascists are angry at the Indonesian government precisely becuase the Indonesian government has acted to put an end to islamofascism and terrorism. At least four people have been sentenced to death by Indonesian courts for terrorist activities, and over thirty convicted and given prison terms [in Indonesian prisons] of three years to life. See, e.g., Jakarta issues death sentence for embassy bombings. Hundreds of others have been arrested and questioned [by Indonesian methods]. What other country has been this stern?

I understand I'm bucking the PC mindset that we should hate "muslim countries" and tar them all with the same brush, but I really think that is a poor approach to the war on terror. If the enemy of my enemy is my friend, I think Indonesia has shown itself to be some kind of friend. Granted, it has some serious shortcomings and internal problems to address, but it is working on them. The whole Bashir thing is a media creation. No Western (or Australian) court would have ever convicted him of anything given the p#ss poor evidence that was available. Oh, and in anticipatory response to those who will say (of those sentenced to death) that they haven't been executed, yet: How long do people stay on death row in our nations? Also, don't you think it would make sense for Indonesia to hold off on executing those rat bastard until AFTER they pass new laws (already in the works) that give the police and military broad new powers to root out the islamofacists who will inevitably retaliate in response to the executions. New laws that even the NRA would oppose in the U.S. as a suspension of civil liberties?
Posted by: cingold   2005-11-03 16:51  

#4  So, basically, the muscle are free to roam the streets while the motivator is kept in prison, guarded from anyone who might want to retaliate, and still able to incite more attacks?
Posted by: Robert Crawford   2005-11-03 15:06  

#3  67's kinda old to be in prison. He could maybe roll out of the top bunk and break his neck? Slip on soap in the shower and cave in his skull? Get depressed and hang himself in his cell? Heart attack? Choke to death on dinner? Struck by lightning? Allah's will? All kinds of bad "stuff"...
Posted by: tu3031   2005-11-03 14:46  

#2  I look forward to Australia doing a whole lot more 9mm "meddling" once this dirtbag gets out.

While it would be nice to think that this is a big step forward, Amrozi getting so much "face time" and other half-hearted measures by Indonesia have yet to convince me of any major sea-change in the way they address terrorism.

Were Indonesia truly serious, they would never even have insulted the global community by announcing a sentence reduction for Bashir in the first place.
Posted by: Zenster   2005-11-03 01:55  

#1  Abdullah said the denial was the direct result of Australian "meddling" in Indonesia's justice system.

All those Australians that died in the bombing, I guess their lives were "meddled" with, right?

Jerk.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2005-11-03 00:42  

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