Ba'asyir lawyer slams Aussie over jail cut issue

Ba'asyir lawyer slams Aussie over jail cut issue

Agencies, Jakarta/Sydney

A lawyer for jailed Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir accused
Australia on Thursday of meddling in Indonesian legal affairs by
protesting a possible reduction in his client's sentence.

"That is really a rude action by Australia. It is a crude
attempt at meddling in the sovereignty of the Indonesian legal
system," said Mohammad Assegaf, one of Ba'asyir's lawyers.

Australian Justice Minister Chris Ellison said on Wednesday
Australia objected to any further reduction of the 30-month jail
sentence imposed on the hard-line cleric in March for his
involvement in a criminal conspiracy that led to the 2002 Bali
bombings.

Ellison said his office had already registered "strong
protests over any remission for Ba'asyir" with the Indonesian
authorities.

In Sydney, Prime Minister John Howard warned on Thursday that
any further reduction in the prison sentence of Ba'asyir would
likely provoke anger in Australia.

"We received assurance from the Indonesian authorities on the
last occasion that these automatic remissions wouldn't apply in
the future to people in certain categories," he told Australia's
Radio 2HD.

"It has certainly been put very forcefully to the Indonesian
government that any further remissions, however small, however
automatic, however general, given to him will cause very deep and
lasting anger in our country," he added.

Howard said he had instructed Australian Ambassador to
Indonesia David Ritchie to raise the issue again with Indonesian
officials on Thursday.

Assegaf objected to the statements coming out of Australia.
"Whatever Australia says, the real question now is how strong is
the authority of the Indonesian legal system. Will the country
allow its legal system to be undermined by foreigners."

He said the granting of annual remissions to prisoners was not
only governed by existing regulations, but was also a matter that
was fully within the authority of a sovereign government.

Harold Crouch, an Indonesian expert at the Australian National
University, said Howard was walking a very difficult line in
trying to instruct the Indonesian courts on how to treat
Ba'asyir.

"He (Howard) himself is saying from time to time that
Australia must realize we can't tell Indonesia what to do," he
said. "But then, in this case, he goes along and starts telling
them they shouldn't have remissions for good behavior ... We
(Australian courts) do the same thing."

Moreover, Howard's demands could "create a very anti-
Australian sentiment in Jakarta", warned Peter Hughes, who
survived the 2002 Bali bombings but suffered burns over 54
percent of his body.

Hughes, however, slammed any possible sentence reductions for
Ba'asyir as "ridiculous".

The warden of the Indonesian jail where Ba'asyir is being
held, Dedi Sutardi, told AFP the government accorded two annual
sentence reductions to prisoners for good conduct if they had
already served at least six months of their sentence.

Under the scheme, Ba'asyir has already had his sentence cut by
more than four months to commemorate Independence Day in August
and could have another month taken off to mark the end of
Ramadhan in early November, Dedi said.

"I hope that Yudhoyono's government will stand firm in the
face of such interference," Assegaf said, referring to President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Ellison said that despite the existence of the remissions
process in Indonesia, Ba'asyir should be exempted because "after
all, (he) has been in prison for terrorism-related offenses and
is the spiritual leader of Jamaah Islamiyah".