Ba'asyir arrested, questioning delayed

Blontank Poer and Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Surakarta/Jakarta

Police arrested on Saturday Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir for his alleged role in various terrorist activities across the country after he failed to appear for police questioning due to claims of ill health.

"The arrest warrant has been issued and from now on Ba'asyir is under police supervision," said the National Police chief of detectives for General Crimes, Brig. Gen. Ariyanto Sutadi, in Surakarta, Central Java on Saturday.

Ariyanto said that police would take Ba'asyir from his hospital room in Surakarta to Jakarta for questioning and the suspect would be kept in police custody once he recovers. He said the police team of doctors would also observe Ba'asyir to check his health.

Ariyanto left Jakarta for Surakarta on Saturday morning along with the team of doctors.

The 64-year-old cleric of al-Mukmin Ngruki Islamic boarding school in Surakarta, who is also the chairman of the Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI), was rushed to the hospital on Friday after he fainted following a media briefing he gave to deny all allegations made against him.

His arrest, however, was not based on the two regulations that were signed by President Megawati Soekarnoputri on Friday night to deal with the Bali bombing, police said.

Police have not linked Ba'asyir with the Bali incident.

Ba'asyir has been named a suspect in a series of terror activities here, including a treason plot and bomb attacks across the country. He is charged under articles in the Criminal Code (KUHP) and Emergency Law No.12/1951 on the illegal possession of firearms and explosives, which carries the death penalty.

Ba'asyir, who is also wanted by Singapore authorities for his alleged role as the mastermind behind last December's fizzled al- Qaeda plot to bomb U.S. targets there, is also believed to have connections with Omar al-Faruq, one of al-Qaeda's top representatives in Southeast Asia.

Ba'asyir refused to sign the arrest warrant on Saturday.

"The allegations (against Ba'asyir) are not valid and the police have no strong basis to prove that our client is guilty," said one of Ba'asyir's lawyers, Achmad Mihdan.

He also said that Ba'asyir's health was improving, and he quoted Ba'asyir as saying that his client wanted to undergo questioning within two or three days.

Ba'asyir's other lawyer, M. Mahendradatta, said from the National Police Headquarters in Jakarta that Adnan Buyung Nasution and M. Assegaf had agreed to join the defense team.

Police said earlier that they summoned Ba'asyir after al-Faruq implicated him during questioning by Indonesian investigators recently. Al-Faruq, who is of Middle Eastern descent and is married to an Indonesian, is in the U.S. authorities' custody.

"Police investigators have also obtained valuable clues from witnesses we've questioned in Malaysia and Singapore," said Ariyanto, who also led the team of investigators dispatched to question al-Faruq.

Ba'asyir's arrest has drawn mixed reactions, including from one of the largest Muslim organizations, the Muhammadiyah.

Syafi'i Ma'arif, the chairman of Muhammadiyah, warned the government to stay independent and deliberate any measure that requires legal action against suspects linked to terrorism, including in Ba'asyir's case.

"Without strong evidence, Ba'asyir's arrest and detainment would give the impression that the government had been influenced by foreign forces and that impression could in turn backfire on all the government's measures to combat terrorism here," he told Antara.

Separately, police questioned al-Faruq's wife, Mira Agustina, for more than seven hours as a witness.

"The questions posed to Mira revolved around the day-to-day activities of herself and her husband al-Faruq," said Mira's lawyer, Hidayat Surya Saleh.

Hidayat said Mira emphasized that she knew nothing about any terror activities related to the allegations made against her husband.

"She also said that she didn't know Ba'asyir or Agus Dwikarna, two names mentioned by investigators as al-Faruq's acquaintances," said Hidayat.

Agus Dwikarna is an Indonesian businessman who was active in MMI and was allegedly one of al-Faruq's operatives here. He was arrested in March in Manila, the Philippines, after airport security officers discovered plastic explosives and detonation cables in his suitcase.