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.