Ba'asyir warns judges of damnation in afterlife
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Lawyers representing terror defendant Abu Bakar Ba'asyir availed of their final chance on Friday to convince a district court of their client's innocence before the court brings in its verdict next Thursday.
The lawyers said the South Jakarta District Court must acquit the Muslim cleric of all charges on the grounds that the prosecution had used concocted evidence.
A team of six lawyers took turns reading out the defense statement, and questioned the prosecutors' competence in preparing the indictment, claiming the evidence and testimony presented in court had been irrelevant to the charges.
"What kind of intelligence did the prosecutors use, saying that papers written by Ba'asyir proved that the defendant incited people to carry out the bombings?" asked one of the lawyers.
Ba'asyir is charged with inciting his followers to launch bomb attacks on two Bali night clubs in 2002 and the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in 2003.
The cleric, who is 66, wrote a paper titled "The Cultivation of Mujahideen in Establishing an Islamic Community," which was presented during a meeting of the Indonesian Mujahideen Council in 1999. The prosecutors used the document to accuse the cleric of inciting his followers to commit the attacks.
"Since the prosecutors could not prove the element of collaboration in the crimes, we would ask the court to release Ba'asyir," the lawyers said in their defense plea.
The prosecution has dropped the charges against Ba'syir in connection with his alleged role in the JW Marriott Hotel attack, but have recommended that he be given eight years behind bars for his alleged role in the Bali bombings.
If found guilty, Ba'asyir could get death under the Antiterrorism Law (No. 15 of 2003).
Earlier in the day, Ba'asyir read out his own defense statement, saying that the trial constituted a project sponsored by "the infidel George W. Bush", the U.S. President. He also advised the judges and prosecutors to reject the "evil project".
"The court must distance itself from this evil project and reject the charges to avoid damnation in the afterlife," Ba'asyir said.
Chief prosecutor Salman Maryadi told reporters after the hearing that he was confident the judges would deliver a fair and just verdict, and maintained that the charges were strong and well-founded.
"We have managed to prove a scheme of collaboration. We have evidence proving that the defendant and the bombers had a mutual understanding as regards the objectives of these crimes," he said.
"Collaborators in crime do not have to be present at the scene of the crime." (006)