Asia-Pacific
Indonesia seeks life in jail for cleric
Abu Bakar Bashir faces possible life sentence for allegedly helping finance
paramilitary training camp in Aceh.
Last Modified: 09 May 2011 08:02
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Bashir is considered leader a movement which seeks to establish a Muslim
caliphate across Southeast Asia[File:EPA]
Indonesia's state prosecutors have sought life in jail for Muslim cleric Abu
Bakar Bashir for allegedly setting up and helping finance a paramilitary
training camp in Aceh.
The threat of execution was evaded after prosecutors said the charges of
providing firearms and explosives for terrorist acts, for which the 72-year-old
preacher could have faced the death penalty, "could not be proven convincingly".
"We wish judges to decide that Abu Bakar Bashir has been proven guilty of
planning and or influencing others to provide money for an act that he would
suspect would be used partly or fully for terrorism acts," prosecutor Andi
Muhammad Taufik said.
Bashir denies any involvement in terrorism. The verdict is not due for several
weeks.
Monday's trial in Jakarta was held amid tight security, with hundreds of
supporters of the cleric waiting to hear if prosecutors would seek the death
penalty.
About 2,500 police backed by armoured vehicles surrounded the Jakarta courtroom
as Bashir appeared to face the sentencing recommendations, and members of the
public were searched for hidden weapons or bombs as they entered the court.
'Bin Laden of Indonesia'
Bashir is officially the caretaker of an Islamic boarding school on Java
island, but has long been considered the spiritual leader of the Jemaah
Islamiyah movement, which seeks to establish a Muslim caliphate across
Southeast Asia.
Before court proceedings started, Bashir praised the al-Qaeda leader Osama bin
Laden who was killed in a US raid in Pakistan last week.
Bin Laden was a "warrior" who will be rewarded in heaven for the "great
sacrifices" he made for Islam,
Bashir said.
Al Jazeera's Step Vaessen, reporting from the court on Monday, said some people
call him the "Osama bin Laden of Indonesia".
"He's seen as the godfather of the movement that has been connected to bomb
attacks in Indonesia for the past 10 years," she said.
"There's a lot at stake for the authorities to finally have him convicted on
terror charges, something they have failed to do twice for the past eight
years."
Bashir was found not guilty of terror offences in two previous trials that
attempted to link him to the 2002 Bali bombings that left more than 200 people
dead.
The so-called Al-Qaeda in Aceh group was planning Mumbai-style attacks using
squads of suicide gunmen against Westerners, police and political leaders
including Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia's president, according to police.
Its operations leader, Indonesian bomb maker Dulmatin, was killed by police in
March last year. Scores of other members of the group have been killed or
captured.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies
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