Ba'asyir loses suit against 'Time'
Ba'asyir loses suit against 'Time'
Agencies, Jakarta
The South Jakarta District Court on Tuesday rejected a Rp 1 trillion (US$110 million) libel lawsuit brought by Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir against U.S. magazine Time over an article said to implicate him in terrorism.
Judges threw out the "unacceptable" lawsuit saying it failed to name enough defendants and was sent to the wrong address.
"The complaint from the plaintiff cannot be accepted. The defendants are not the parties responsible for the report. The responsibility lies in the hands of Time Inc. in New York which should have been included in this case," said presiding judge R. Soedarjatno.
Ba'asyir, currently on trial for terrorism accused of inciting the October 2002 Bali bombings and other attacks as head of the Al-Qaeda-linked Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), had sought Rp 1 trillion from Time.
The magazine, in its Sept. 15, 2002, edition ran an article detailing alleged confessions by a suspected Al-Qaeda operative, Omar al Faruq. It cited a secret U.S. Central Intelligence Agency document and regional intelligence reports.
The magazine said al Faruq had told the CIA that Ba'asyir, 66, as alleged Jemaah Islamiyah leader, authorized Faruq to use the group's operatives and resources to conduct attacks on U.S. embassies in Southeast Asia in 2002.
Speaking after Tuesday's ruling, Time lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis said the verdict was based on failure by Ba'asyir's counsel to name the magazine's chief editor in the United States as a defendant.
They only named Time's Indonesia-based reporters and Southeast Asia's correspondent in their lawsuit.
Ba'asyir's lawyer Achmad Michdan said the verdict "shows that the judges are unfair and do not understand the lawsuit." He added that his team would file an appeal.
Ba'asyir was not present at the libel hearing because he is being held detention for his terrorism trial.
He has been charged with inciting followers to carry out the October 2002 Bali bombings in which 202 people died and of plotting last year's attack on the Jakarta Marriott hotel. If found guilty he faces a possible death sentence.
Ba'asyir unsuccessfully sued the government of Singapore last year for branding him a terrorist leader.
He has always denied any involvement in terrorism, and says the government in the world's most populous Muslim nation has buckled under foreign pressure to arrest him.
Police arrested him shortly after the Bali bombings, but courts ruled charges brought under the criminal code over his leadership of the JI network and links to earlier violence were unproven.
He instead served 18 months for immigration violations but was re-arrested once that sentence had been served last April.