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".