Ba'asyir charged with Marriott blast

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta

While unable to implicate Abu Bakar Ba'aysir in the Bali bombings, the National Police said on Thursday they would charge the Muslim cleric with involvement in the 2003 JW Marriott Hotel attack in Jakarta, to keep him in custody.

National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Suyitno Landung Sudjono said Ba'asyir, as Jamaah Islamiyah's (JI) leader, masterminded the hotel bombing -- in which 12 people were killed -- despite the fact that he had been in prison since August 2002.

"Ba'asyir helped plan the Marriott bombing because he is the leader of the clandestine organization called Jamaah Islamiyah. He could have been planning the attack before he was arrested," said Suyitno.

The cleric was charged under Law No. 15/2003 on antiterrorism and Law No. 16/2003 on retroactivity that enables the police to charge suspects of the Oct. 12, 2002 Bali blast under the Antiterrorism Law, which remained a draft when the incident occurred. The police have to scrap the charges after the Constitutional Court declared Law No. 16/2003 unconstitutional, and therefore invalid.

Previously, the police had said Ba'asyir was behind all bomb attacks that rocked the country from 1999 to 2002.

The JI, a UN-listed terrorist organization, is blamed for the Bali blast, which killed 202 people, and the Aug. 5, 2003 JW Marriott Hotel attack.

Ba'asyir's lawyers demanded on Wednesday their client's immediate release because his detention letter says he was charged under the wrong law.

However, Suyitno insisted that Ba'asyir's detention would stand because of evidence that he was the leader of the JI.

"Law No. 15 stipulates that terrorism is an organized crime. So, Ba'asyir, as the leader of the organization, must be held responsible," he said.

Suyitno added that a document found during a raid on a house in Semarang in 2003, also revealed that Ba'asyir was the leader of the JI.

"We confiscated explosives, guns and documents and arrested several JI members. The documents reveal that Ba'asyir is the JI leader, and the suspects arrested said they are JI members and Ba'asyir is their leader," he said.