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| Southeast Asia |
| Amrozi claims Bashir is no terrorist |
| 2006-04-19 |
| An Indonesian militant awaiting execution for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings testified Wednesday that he was tortured into implicating a Muslim cleric alleged by Washington to be Southeast Asia's terror chief. Amrozi Nurhasyim made the remarks during an appeal of Abu Bakar Bashir's conviction and 2-year sentence for conspiring in the blasts, which killed 202 people, mostly foreigners on vacation. The attacks were blamed on the al-Qaida linked Jemaah Islamiyah network. Bashir, 70, who was not in court, is scheduled to be released from prison in June when his sentence ends, and his lawyers have acknowledged that it is unlikely that judges will rule in the appeal before that date. A victory would have symbolic value to hardliners in the world's most populous Muslim nation, where some see the aging cleric as a victim of foreign interference. ``We were all tortured to say we were ordered by Abu Bakar Bashir (to carry out the blasts),'' Nurhasyim told the court to cheers and shouts of ``God is Great'' from about 100 Bashir supporters. ``But this old man has no links (with terrorism),'' he said, without elaborating on the torture allegations. Police have denied mistreating any of the more than 30 militants convicted in the attacks. The United States and Australia maintain Bashir is a key leader of Jemaah Islamiyah. Bashir has always denied any wrongdoing, but admits knowing several key Southeast Asian militants in the 1980s and 1990s who went to Afghanistan and trained there with al-Qaida. Before the Bali attacks, he was best known for his fiercely anti-American and Jewish views and his campaign to transform secular Indonesia into an Islamic state. Nurhasyim, nicknamed the ``Smiling Bomber'' for his frequent gloating over the blasts, arrived at the court after traveling by boat from a nearby prison island, where he and two other militants sentenced to die for the bombings are being held. He smiled at reporters, and jokingly asked the judges if he could have a cup of coffee. When asked by judges what his profession was, Bashir's supporters shouted: ``Holy warrior! Holy warrior!'' At Bashir's original trial, prosecutors said Nurhasyim visited the cleric three months before the attacks to ask for his blessing, which they said he obtained. Prosecutors cited a confession by Nurhasyim that he allegedly made to police. Nurhasyim said he had met Bashir at a boarding school the cleric used to run, but that they did not discuss his plans to bomb the nightclubs on Bali island. ``From the beginning, police told me to say I was ordered by Abu Bakar Bashir. They said 'if you admit that you will receive a lesser punishment, or even be freed.''' Bashir's lawyers plan to continue with the appeal even after his release in June. Bashir was first arrested in 2002 shortly after the Bali bombings amid intense pressure on Indonesia to detain suspects in the blasts. In the trial that followed, he was acquitted of heading Jemaah Islamiyah, but sentenced to 18-months in prison for minor immigration violations. As his release date approached, U.S. and Australian officials both publicly called on Indonesia not to free him, saying he was a key terrorist leader. Denying they were acting on the orders of foreigners, police arrested Bashir as he left jail in 2003 and charged him with several terror crimes based on new evidence. But judges only convicted him in the Bali attacks and sentenced him to a relatively short prison term. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |