Ba'asyir suit against police rejected

Ba'asyir suit against police rejected

JAKARTA: The South Jakarta District Court rejected on Thursday
a lawsuit filed by cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir against National
Police over his alleged illegal arrest.

Ba'asyir filed the lawsuit against police after authorities
removed him from a hospital in Surakarta, East Java, in October
2002.

Presiding Judge Asnahwati told the court on Thursday that the
court had no jurisdiction to rule on a civil case.

"It is supposedly a criminal lawsuit," she said.

Ba'asyir's lawyers had said that there was no clear legal
basis to arrest the leader of Jamaah Islamiyah, a regional
terrorist network believed to be behind the deadly Bali bombing,
after police investigators changed the charge from attempting to
topple the government to attempting to kill the president.

Ba'asyir is currently being tried for document forgery and
subversion at the Central Jakarta District Court. -- JP