Ba'asyir verdict sparks courtroom violence
Ba'asyir verdict sparks courtroom violence
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Supporters of terror suspect Abu Bakar Ba'asyir fought a running
battle with police officers and hurled shoes and other debris
inside a courtroom, shortly after a judge dismissed on Monday the
lawsuit against the arrest of the elderly cleric.
Judge Syamsul Ali announced at the South Jakarta District
Court that police had valid grounds to detain Ba'asyir on terror
charges.
The decision paved the way for prosecutors to continue holding
him in custody to face trial, and for police to go ahead with
arresting other terror suspects despite mounting protests from
Islamic hardliners.
Immediately after hearing the verdict against the pre-trial
suit filed by Ba'asyir's lawyers against police, one of his
supporters threw his sandal at Syamsul, and security officers
escorted him outside of the courtroom.
Other supporters, mostly activists from the Ba'asyir-led
Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI), then began hurling all manner
of footwear at a lawyer representing the police, while yelling
that the judge was a puppet of the United States and made a
decision based on what the superpower country wanted.
"Ustadz (teacher) Ba'asyir is not guilty. Allahu Akbar (God is
great). You are all American puppets. You will receive punishment
someday," one angry young man shouted.
Several officers, led by Pasar Minggu Police chief Comr. Didi
S., rushed into the courtroom to try to help calm down the
cleric's angry supporters.
But one of them instead struck Didi in the face. Another
police officer, who tried to defend Didi, was also beaten by the
mob.
The brawl eventually cooled down after more police officers
arrived, while several of the apparent leaders of the group also
helped calm down the crowd, who continued jeering the judge and
police over the verdict.
Ba'asyir's lawyer Acmad Michdan also slammed the ruling,
saying it showed the judge did not have the courage to make a
ruling based on truth.
"Based on the Criminal Code, Ba'asyir must be released after
the Constitutional Court struck down the articles permitting the
retroactive application of the antiterror law," he claimed.
The Constitutional Court ruled on July 23 that the retroactive
articles in Law No. 16/2003 on terrorism (passed a few months
after the Bali bombings) were unconstitutional, even though the
law itself remains in force.
Following the annulment, the team of lawyers for Ba'asyir
filed a pre-trial suit with the district court to challenge the
police arrest of their client on charges of involvement in the
2002 Bali bombings that killed over 200 people.
However, according to Ba'syir's case file submitted to the
Attorney General's Office, the police dropped the charge
regarding the Bali bombings and instead will use the Criminal
Code for that count.
The case file still has a charge against Ba'asyir under the
antiterror law for playing a role in the 2003 bombing of the
Marriott Hotel, Jakarta, which took place after Law No. 16/2003
was enacted.
Commenting on Ba'asyir's verdict, a legal expert from the
University of Indonesia, Rudy Satrio, said the court decision
would encourage the police to continue making arrests of Muslim
activists suspected of terror, despite little solid evidence.
Some 150 activists have been arrested by police with alleged
links to terrorism since the Bali terror attack, according to
Muslim lawyers.
They Muslim lawyers demanded an end to such arrests, which
they said were made "arbitrarily and unlawfully".