Ba'asyir to retain top post at MMI

Ba'asyir to retain top post at MMI

SURAKARTA, Central Java: The Indonesian Mujahidin Council
(MMI) will likely retain terror suspect Abu Bakar Ba'asyir as its
top leader during the militant group's ongoing three-day congress
here, which ends on Tuesday.

"Replacing Ustadz (teacher) Abu Bakar Ba'asyir during the
current situation would mean committing kezaliman (an act of
mistreatment) against him. All MMI members believe that he is an
innocent man who is facing an unjust legal process," congress
committee chairman Farid Ma'ruf said on Monday.

Ba'asyir has been prevented from attending the congress as he
is standing trial in Jakarta on charges of plotting to kill
President Megawati Soekarnoputri in 1999 and involvement in the
Christmas bombings in 2000.

Farid, also director of the Al Mukmin Islamic boarding school
in Ngruki, Surakarta, denied his school had connections with the
regional Jamaah Islamiyah terror network.

Police have linked JI with last year's deadly bombings in Bali
and the recent bombing at the Marriott Hotel.

Asmar Latin Sani, the suspected suicide bomber at the
Marriott, was a graduate from Ngruki boarding school, police
said.

However, Farid denied that his school, founded in 1972, taught
violence to its students. --JP