Prosecutors formally charge Ba'asyir with treason<\/p>\n
Agencies, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Prosecutors submitted the dossiers of Abu Bakar Ba'asyir to the
\nCentral Jakarta District Court on Monday and charged him with
\ntreason and immigration violations.<\/p>\n
\"We hope the court can form a team of judges as soon as
\npossible to start the trial,\" said prosecutor Hasan Madani, who
\nsubmitted the dossiers on Monday morning.<\/p>\n
Usually, it takes between two weeks to four weeks for a court
\nto select the judges.<\/p>\n
Treason carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail, while
\nimmigration violations are punishable with six years in jail.<\/p>\n
The indictment accused Ba'asyir, founder and leader of the
\nNgruki school in Solo, Central Java and the alleged spiritual
\nleader of Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), of plotting a string of bombings
\nin Indonesia as part of a campaign to topple the government and
\nset up an Islamic state.<\/p>\n
The 25-page charge sheet, however, did not accuse Ba'asyir,
\n64, of direct involvement in the Bali bombings on Oct. 12, 2002,
\nwhich killed at least 202 people and injured more than 350
\nothers, mostly foreigners.<\/p>\n
But it said he gave his blessing to the Christmas Eve bombings
\ntargeting churches and priests which killed 19 people in Jakarta
\nand other cities across the country in 2000.<\/p>\n
Ba'asyir \"also approved the planning to bomb American
\ninterests in Singapore known as program C,\" it said. Singapore
\nfoiled that bombing plot with the arrest of a large number of JI
\nsuspects.<\/p>\n
The charges, along with thousands of pages of evidence, were
\nhanded over in preparation for a trial. A court official said it
\ncould take part in Jakarta \"within weeks\".<\/p>\n
According to Muljohardjo, Ba'asyir would be tried at the hall
\nof the Meteorological and Geophysics Agency office building in
\nKemayoran, Central Jakarta.<\/p>\n
The hall had earlier been used as a venue for the trials of
\nHouse of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung for graft, and
\nTommy Soeharto for the murder of a Supreme Court justice.<\/p>\n
\"The defendant is the leader and organizer of treason with the
\nintention of toppling the government and fulfilling his intention
\nof setting up the Islamic State of Indonesia,\" the charge read.<\/p>\n
It is believed that Ba'asyir and Abdullah Sungkar, who has
\ndied of natural causes, set up JI in the 1990s with Sungkar as
\nleader and Ba'asyir as his deputy.<\/p>\n
The prosecutors also charged Ba'asyir with making false
\ndocuments to show he was a resident of the Java town of Ngruki.<\/p>\n
He was also accused of making a false affidavit about his
\nwhereabouts from 1985 to 1999 and with failing to carry out his
\nobligations as a foreigner in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Ba'asyir fled to Malaysia in 1985 after serving a three-year-
\njail term for subversion but never notified the Indonesian
\nembassy there of his presence -- a necessary requirement if he
\nwished to retain his Indonesian citizenship.<\/p>\n
He returned to Indonesia after the fall of dictator Soeharto
\nin 1998.<\/p>\n
Ba'asyir, who was detained last October, was not present in
\ncourt. He has denied any links to terrorism but has described al-
\nQaeda leader Osama bin Laden as \"a true Muslim fighter\".<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/prosecutors-formally-charge-baasyir-with-treason-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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