Ba'asyir to serve full jail term, Tommy gets further time cut
Ba'asyir to serve full jail term, Tommy gets further time cut
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
In an abrupt about-face, the government has decided not to grant
convicted terrorist and Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir a
sentence remission given to inmates in observance of Idul Fitri
holiday.
There was no explanation from government officials about why
Ba'asyir was excluded from the list of 39,348 inmates who had
their prison terms reduced. These inmates included convicted
murderer Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, the youngest son of former
president Soeharto.
Cipinang Penitentiary, where Ba'asyir is serving his 30-month
jail term after being convicted in April of conspiring to plan
the 2002 October Bali bombings was unusually declared off-limits to
the media during the Idul Fitri holiday on Thursday and Friday.
The bombings killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
The announcement, signed by chief warden Dedi Sutardi, was
pasted on the penitentiary's front door.
One of Ba'asyir's close aides, Fauzan Al Anshori, confirmed
the cleric's exclusion from the roster of those awarded
remissions.
"He did not receive a special remission," Fauzan told Antara
on Friday after visiting the cleric at his cell.
Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hamid Awaluddin said last
week Ba'asyir might have his jail term cut for the second time
following four and a-half months of remissions given to him in
August, thanks to his good conduct in jail. The minister also
said Ba'asyir was entitled to the Idul Fitri remission since the
regulations on remissions were still under revision.
Quoting an unnamed source, Antara said the chief warden had
proposed a 30-day remission for Ba'asyir.
But an official quoted Hamid as saying that people convicted
of acts of terrorism would be exempted from the remission, unless
"there is a special consultation with wardens."
Other convicts who could only receive remissions through "a
special consultation" with the minister are those jailed for
money laundering, illegal logging and drugs trafficking.
Australia called for Indonesia to grant no more remissions to
Ba'asyir, following the Bali blasts on Oct. 1, which killed 23
people, including two Australians.
Unlike Ba'asyir, other convicted terrorists, Datuak Rajo Ameh
aka H. Muchtar Tanjung and Sudigdoyo bin Maryoto alias Sudik,
have their jail terms reduced, along with 1,577 inmates currently
incarcerated across Riau province.
Rajo Ameh was sentenced to three years in prison, while
Sudigdoyo to six years after the local district court found them
guilty for assisting two fugitive Malaysian bomb-makers, Moh.
Noordin Top and Azahari bin Husin.
Three other convicted terrorists, Imam Samudra, Amrozi and Ali
Ghufron are not eligible for remissions because they had been
given death sentences. Those three were recently moved from Bali
to Nusakambangan maximum security prison in Central Java.
They will not be executed until their families make a decision
about whether to seek the President's clemency.
Meanwhile, Tommy had his term reduced a further one and a-half
months.
Tommy is serving a 10-year prison term also in Nusakambangan.
Since his conviction in 2002, Tommy has been granted remissions
on six occasions, with the total cuts to his jail term amounting
to more than 20 months.