Ba'asyir mulls challenging court verdict

Ba'asyir mulls challenging court verdict

Yogita Tahilramani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In a bizarre turn of events, Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir
is considering legal measures to challenge a 1985 Supreme Court
verdict sentencing him to nine years in jail for subversion.

The verdict has only just been served upon him over 16 years
after it was originally handed down.

Ba'asyir's lawyer, Mahendra Datta, said on Wednesday that his
client was ready to face arrest based upon the verdict, but he
was not going to sign the verdict's formal notification, and
would instead take legal measures to try and overturn it.

"We could request the Supreme Court to issue a ruling
annulling the verdict as the subversion law has been repealed.
The second alternative is to legally demand a review of the
verdict. Third, we could seek an amnesty from President Megawati
Soekarnoputri," Mahendra said.

Apparently out of the blue, the Supreme Court has sent a
notification to Abu Bakar Ba'asyir of a verdict sentencing him to
a nine-year jail term for subversion.

The notification was dated Feb. 6, 1985 but was only received
by the cleric this week, Mahendra Datta said.

"Indonesia, according to my client, is buckling under pressure
from neighboring countries Singapore and Malaysia, and the United
States as well, to put him away for good... over unsubstantiated
beliefs that he is linked to terrorist groups," Mahendra told The
Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

The Supreme Court stated that Ba'asyir had been found guilty
of agitating for the establishment of an Islamic state. The
verdict, which was issued under the 1963 subversion law,
overturned a lower court ruling that halved a nine-year jail term
imposed upon him by the Sukohardjo District Court in Central Java
in 1978.

Ba'asyir had been tried for his involvement with Komando
Jihad, a hard-line group which was fighting for an Islamic state.

With his jail term halved, he later ended up settling in
Malaysia with his friend, the late Indonesian Muslim cleric
Abdullah Achmad Sungkar, who was jailed in Indonesia on the same
charges as Ba'asyir, and also had his jailterm halved.

Ba'asyir returned to Indonesia in 1999, after residing in
Malaysia for some time as a preacher known for his hard-line
teachings.

Indonesian Police have recently questioned Ba'asyir, who is
notorious for espousing a firebrand form of Islam, over his
alleged ties with international terrorist groups.

Ba'asyir also recently launched a billion dollar lawsuit in
the South Jakarta District Court against the Singapore government
for accusing him of being a terrorist.

"Why has the notification of the verdict only come now?
Ba'asyir has been in Indonesia since 1999. The Indonesian
government recently sent a letter to the Supreme Court that
recommended that Ba'asyir's lawsuit (against the Singapore
government) should be halted. If this isn't intervention, what is
it then?" Mahendra said.

Foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa denied the
allegation that the government had intervened in the court
process.

"The Indonesian government did send a letter to the Supreme
Court, as a form of a legal advice, that all foreign embassies
enjoy immunity under the 1961 Vienna Convention," Marty told the
Post on Wednesday.