PM Goh disappointed by Ba'asyir verdict<\/p>\n
Agencies, Singapore\/Washington<\/p>\n
Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said on Tuesday he was
\ndisappointed by a Jakarta court's four-year jail term for an
\nIslamic cleric suspected of heading a militant Southeast Asian
\nmilitant network.<\/p>\n
\"It's not the result which we would like to see, but it's the
\nresult which we've got to accept,\" Goh told British Broadcasting
\nCorp. in an interview.<\/p>\n
Indonesian prosecutors are appealing the verdict on Muslim
\ncleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, whose treason sentence this month was
\nseen as too lenient in much of Asia and the West.<\/p>\n
The prosecutors failed to prove Ba'asyir was the emir, or
\nspiritual leader, of Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), a militant group
\nblamed for the Bali bombings that killed 202 people, mainly
\nAustralians, last October.<\/p>\n
\"In Singapore, based on the evidence that we have, we will
\nbelieve that he is the head of Jamaah Islamiyah,\" Goh said.
\n\"That's the intelligence that we have from the people arrested in
\nSingapore.\"<\/p>\n
Singapore was among the first nations to identify the threat
\nposed by Jamaah Islamiyah. Thirty-one people associated with JI
\nare held now in Singapore suspected of planning to blow up the
\nU.S. embassy and other Western targets in the city state.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors had demanded the prominent cleric be jailed for 15
\nyears. Many saw this as tantamount to a life sentence for the 65-
\nyear-old Ba'asyir, who has suffered from poor health.<\/p>\n
When asked if the Jakarta court came up with the wrong result
\nin its Sept. 2 decision, Goh said: \"I would say the result is
\nfairly undecided.\"<\/p>\n
A Singapore government white paper this year said Ba'asyir
\ntook over leadership of the group in 1999. Singapore has also
\nlinked JI to the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, blamed for
\nSept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.<\/p>\n
Separately in Washington, U.S. authorities want to try alleged
\nterror chief and one of the top JI leaders Hambali for the Sept.
\n11 attacks, The Washington Times reported on Monday.<\/p>\n
\"We want to try him for September 11,\" the paper quoted a U.S.
\nofficial, who spoke privately, as saying.<\/p>\n
Hambali is believed to be the Asian pointman for the al-Qaeda
\ngroup which is blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United
\nStates, and the operations chief of JI, a Southeast Asian terror
\nnetwork accused of carrying out last October's Bali bombings and
\na string of other attacks.<\/p>\n
The Sept. 11, 2001 attacks left some 3,000 people dead and
\nhave been claimed by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.<\/p>",
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