Ba'asyir may face treason charges: Police

Ba'asyir may face treason charges: Police

Associated Press, Jakarta

Police recommended on Tuesday that prosecutors file treason charges against al-Qaeda-linked Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who is accused of involvement in church bombings two years ago and a plot to assassinate President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Ba'asyir, who has been in custody in Jakarta for months, is the alleged spiritual leader of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah, which is blamed for the Oct. 12 Bali bombings that killed over 190 people, mostly foreign tourists.

Ba'asyir has not been formally named as a suspect in those blasts. Ba'asyir, who runs an Islamic boarding school in the Central Java town of Sukoharjo, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

"Ba'asyir is accused of treason. We have enough evidence to show that he has plotted to topple the government," said National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang.

Police commanders have said they compiled sufficient evidence to convict Ba'asyir on charges of having organized a string of church bombings in 2000 that killed 19 people and of involvement in an alleged plan to kill Megawati.

Aritonang said police were recommending charges of treason, and involvement in attacks using explosives, crimes which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The police charges were submitted Tuesday in a document to prosecutors, who have 14 days to study it. The prosecutors can then either submit it to a court for trial or return it to police to be revised.

Prosecutors will have the final say over the charges filed to court.

Ba'asyir's arrest was based on the testimony of Umar al-Faruq, an al-Qaida operative captured in Indonesia last year and turned over to the United States. Al-Faruq claimed to have known Ba'asyir well and implicated him in the bombings and the assassination plot.