Ba'asyir prosecution dealt major blow

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The prosecutors' bid to link Abu Bakar Ba'asyir to the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) group blamed for a series of bomb attacks in the country was dealt a major blow on Thursday after three key witnesses withdrew earlier statements that connected the Muslim cleric to the regional terrorist network.

Two key witnesses, Sutikno and Imron Baihaki, both convicted for taking part in terror attacks, retracted their earlier confessions to the police that Ba'asyir was the head of JI and had once visited a Muslim rebel camp in the southern Philippines.

Prosecutors said Sutikno had confessed to being involved in several meetings in the Puncak area between 2000 to 2003 that discussed the appointment of Ba'asyir as the head of JI, replacing Abdullah Sungkar who died in late 1999.

"No, it's not true. There was never such an issue brought up in those discussions. The meetings were only reunions of those who waged a jihad in Afghanistan," Sutikno told the court.

Self-proclaimed JI member Imron Baihaki, denied earlier claims that he had seen Ba'asyir at the Moro training camp giving sermons on practicing Islam. He also could not confirm if the cleric was the head of JI.

"I was only told by a person, Nasir Abbas, that Ba'asyir had replaced Abdullah Sungkar as the head of JI. Later I discovered that Ba'asyir was not, but was the head of the MMI (Indonesian Mujahidin Council)," Imron said.

Ba'asyir founded the council shortly after he returned to Indonesia in 1999 after exile in Malaysia.

Another witness who also withdrew statements given to the police was Muhaimin Yahya alias Ziad, who denied ever seeing the 66-year-old cleric at the training camp while he was there from 1999 to 2000.

The three witnesses claimed they had been either forced by investigators to make confessions or were exhausted when making the statements.

Two other important witnesses called to the stand on Thursday were two other convicts Surono and Samian.

Samian confirmed that the meetings in Puncak did talk about the replacement of Abdullah Sungkar as the head of JI, but said he did not recall who the successor was.

All five witnesses all claimed to have met Ba'asyir on several occasions, mostly during sermons at mosques. However, they denied ever being encouraged by the cleric to carry out bomb attacks or acts of violence, for which Ba'asyir is being charged.

The five also denied accusations that JI was a structured organization. Saying it was simply a literal Islamic term for a Muslim community.

Prosecutors are trying to link Ba'asyir to JI, which has been accused of orchestrating the 2002 Bali bombings, the August 2003 attack on Jakarta's JW Marriott Hotel, and this year's September blast outside the Australian Embassy, as well as and other attacks, including those on churches across the country on Christmas Eve in 2000.

If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of death.

Two other witnesses called to the stand were a JW Marriott hotel security manager, Haryana, and an employee working for the building's owner PT Permata, Biramasakti Yuli Tyaningsih. Both told the court about the circumstances at the time of the bombing.

After the trial Salman Maryadi, who heads the team of prosecutors, immediately left the court room and refused to comment.

Presiding judge Sudarto adjourned the trial until Dec. 21 to hear more witnesses.