Amrozi testimony sought in Ba'asyir's trial

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In an attempt to provide evidence of links between Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir and the Jamaah Islamiyah terror network, prosecutors asked the court on Tuesday to hear the testimony of Amrozi, one of key suspects in last year's Bali bombings.

Amrozi, who is standing trial in the Denpasar District Court for the bomb attacks, is expected to testify on Thursday, prosecutor Firdaus Dewilmar told the Central Jakarta District Court.

Prosecutors also asked the panel of five judges to hear the testimony of six alleged members of JI currently being detained in Malaysia and Singapore via teleconference as both governments rejected their request to bring the witnesses directly to the court.

Presiding judge M. Saleh said the decision over the request would be announced on Thursday after hearing the defense of Ba'asyir's lawyers.

Ba'asyir is charged with treason and visa violations. He could be jailed for 20 years if he is convicted of the primary charge.

As of yet, none of the witnesses, including four key Bali bombing suspects, testified that Ba'asyir had a direct link to JI. Some of them said they believed or had been told he was JI's leader, replacing the late Abdullah Sungkar who died in 1999.

Earlier in the day, the court heard the testimony of witness Suryadi Mas'ud, who himself is standing trial for last year's bombing of a McDonald restaurant in the South Sulawesi city of Makassar.

Suryadi said he heard of Ba'asyir's visit to Camp Abu Bakar in Mindanao, Southern Philippines from Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, who is now serving a prison sentence in the Philippines for terrorism.

"I heard from Fathur Rohman that Ustadz (teacher) Abu Bakar visited that camp," Suryadi told the court without elaborating.

However, he said that he had not met Bashir before Tuesday's trial session.

Suryadi admitted that he underwent military training at the camp, which allegedly was the training center for other JI suspects.

He said he met Umar al-Faruq and Imam Samudra in the camp. Al-Faruq, an alleged operative of al-Qaeda terror network, is currently being detained by the U.S. Samudra is currently on trial for masterminding the Bali bombings.