Bali bomber says he had no links with cleric Ba'asyir

Bali bomber says he had no links with cleric Ba'asyir

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Ali Imron, who is serving a life sentence for the 2002 Bali
bombings, testified in the trial of Abu Bakar Ba'asyir on
Thursday that the cleric had not influenced his actions in
carrying out the attack.

His testimony posed another setback for prosecutors in trying
to link Ba'asyir, 66, with the Bali bombings and the 2003 bombing
of JW Marriott Hotel, which were both blamed on Jamaah Islamiyah.

Ali had previously refused to testify until the judge
explained the importance of the Ba'asyir case. Another convicted
Bali bomber, Hutomo Pamungkas alias Mubarok, failed to testify in
Thursday's court session due to health reasons.

Ali said that Ba'asyir, charged by the prosecution for
inciting his followers to bomb two nightclubs in Bali and the
Marriott hotel, had not provided any facilities, financial
support or any religious advice for him before the Bali attack.

He said he had not met Ba'asyir before the bombings.

"I saw Ba'asyir once, when I was staying at the home of my
brother, Mukhlas, in Johor, Malaysia," Ali said, recalling the
days before he went to Pakistan and Afghanistan to study Islam
and learn the art of war.

"As far as I knew, Abdullah Sungkar was the leader of Jamaah
Islamiyah. Then I found out from the media that Ba'asyir was the
amir (leader) of the organization."

Ali acknowledged that he first met Ba'asyir when the 66-year-
old taught at the Al-Mukmin Islamic boarding school (pesantren)
in Ngruki, Surakarta, Central Java.

Ba'asyir confirmed Ali's testimony, saying that he knew Ali
when he was in fourth grade at Ngruki.

Before adjourning the trial, the panel of judges instructed
the prosecutors to present Mubarok to testify in the next session
scheduled for Jan. 27.

"We believe that the presence of this witness in court is
important," presiding judge Soedarto said.

He argued that during the previous hearings, witnesses had
linked Mubarok with Ba'asyir in relation to the cleric's alleged
role in JI.

Meanwhile, Ba'asyir's defense lawyers asked the judges to also
summon former president Megawati Soekarnoputri to testify at the
trial.

Muhammad Assegaf, chief lawyer for Baasyir, said Megawati
should appear in court because her name had been mentioned by
witness Frederic L. Bucks, a former translator for U.S. President
George W. Bush.

Bucks had told the court that Bush once asked Megawati to
secretly arrest Ba'asyir and hand him over to the U.S.
authorities for prosecution.

The judges however rejected the lawyers' request, saying they
did not believe that Megawati's testimony would be pivotal in
Ba'asyir case.

A.P. Batubara, a Megawati aide, told Antara that the former
president would not be willing to testify in the Ba'asyir trial.
Batubara did not say why.

He said Megawati rejected the appeal of the Bush
administration to hand over the Muslim cleric to the United
States in order to protect the right of a citizen to face trial
in Indonesia under the country's law.

The Ministry of Agriculture's auditorium, which housed
Thursday's trial, was not as crowded as the previous sessions as
many of Ba'asyir's supporters from the Indonesian Mujahiddin
Council (MMI) did not show up on the eve of Idul Adha (Islamic
Day of Sacrifice).