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