Ba'asyir says he has been set up by Bush
Ba'asyir says he has been set up by Bush
Agencies Jakarta
Alleged terror chief Abu Bakar Ba'asyir told a court here on Thursday that he was being framed by U.S. President George W. Bush because of supporting Islam and that he had nothing to do with a string of deadly bombings in Indonesia.
Ba'asyir is charged with inspiring his followers to carry out the Bali and J.W. Marriott hotel bombings.
Prosecutors have asked a court to sentence him to eight years in jail -- far short of the maximum death penalty allowed under the law.
"My arrest, detention and trial was ordered by George Bush and his henchmen because of my struggle to uphold Islamic law in Indonesia," he was quoted by AP as saying.
"The charges against me are not true. I never ordered other people to carry out the Bali bombings nor the J.W. Marriott bombing."
Since the trial started in November, Ba'asyir has professed his innocence. But the United States and Australia have publicly accused him of being a key terror leader who helped orchestrate the Oct. 12, 2002 Bali nightclub blasts and the August 2003 Marriott attack which killed a total of 214 people.
"I am not a leader of Jamaah Islamiyah," said Ba'asyir, as his supporters chanted "Allahu Akbar (God is the greatest)".
"I only taught Islam in Indonesia and Malaysia. I never received any messages from Osama bin Laden as one witness testified in court," he said.
The 66-year old cleric denied that he was present at a Jamaah Islamiyah ceremony at a rebel camp in the southern Philippines in 2000, or that he had relayed Osama bin Laden's calls to fight the United States.
He accused the US of a "cunning" campaign to impose its values on Muslims worldwide.
"They are not only doing it in Indonesia but also in Afghanistan by destroying the Taliban regime which established Islamic Sharia. They are doing it in Iraq by killing Muslim men, women and children," he said as quoted by AFP.
Ba'asyir fled to Malaysia in the 1980s to escape persecution against Muslim activists by then-dictator Soeharto. He returned to Indonesia in 1999 following Soeharto's downfall the previous year.
"Since returning from Malaysia my activities were simply preaching and teaching, making a living honestly," he said.
Lawyers for Ba'asyir later called on the court to drop the charges against their client and release him. Judges are expected to announce their verdict in two weeks.
Since the trial, prosecutors have struggled to prove Ba'asyir is a terrorist. Only one witness testified that he was the leader of Jamaah Islamiyah.
The witness, Nasir Abbas, said he was a former operative with Jamaah Islamiyah and that Ba'asyir claimed to have met with al- Qaida chief Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Abbas also alleged that Ba'asyir headed Jamaah Islamiyah and swore him in as a group member at a 2000 ceremony in the cleric's hometown of Surakarta, Central Java.
Other witnesses failed to link the cleric to either the Bali or Marriott bombings.
Ba'asyir, who was cleared in 2003 of leading Jamaah Islamiyah, was released from jail in April last year after serving a sentence for an immigration offense. He was immediately rearrested by police, who said they had new evidence of terror links.