Ba'asyir warns judges of damnation in afterlife
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)