Ba'asyir prosecution dealt major blow

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.