Bombing charges await Ba'asyir
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir will be charged with masterminding the J.W. Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta and the illegal possession of explosives, the Attorney General's Office says.
The office also said on Thursday prosecutors had finished drafting charges against Ba'asyir and would submit his case file to the South Jakarta District Court next week.
"The prosecutors will submit the case file to the court next week, if not this week. The South Jakarta court will try him," office spokesman Kemas Yahya Rahman said.
The court will set the trial date.
Ba'asyir, who was earlier tried and acquitted of being the leader of regional terrorist network Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), was arrested for alleged involvement in a string of terrorist attacks in Indonesia from 1999 to 2003, including the Bali bombings on Oct. 12, 2002.
Police investigators, however, agreed not to pursue charges against Ba'asyir in the Bali bombings, which killed 202 people and injured over 300 others, after the Constitutional Court ruled in July that Law No. 16/2003 on the retroactive application of Law No. 15/2003 on terrorism violated the Constitution.
"We have dropped the Bali bombings from the charges because of the ruling," said Kemas.
He said Ba'asyir was being charged with masterminding the J.W. Marriott Hotel bombing that killed 12 people in August 2003, and the illegal possession of explosives found last year on Jl. Sri Rejeki in Semarang, Central Java.
Police confiscated a huge cache of explosives, weapons and documents that allegedly pointed to Ba'asyir's connection to JI during a raid on a house on Jl. Sri Rejeki in Semarang in 2003.
Kemas said the cleric would be charged under Law No. 15/2003 on terrorism and several articles of the Criminal Code, including Article 167 on the illegal possession of explosives.
"We are sure that we have strong evidence and witnesses to charge him with terrorism. We would not have announced that the case file was complete if we did not have a strong case. He could get the death penalty if found guilty," he said.
Police named Ba'asyir a terrorist suspect on April 16 and charged him under articles 14, 15, 17 and 18 of Law No. 15/2003 on antiterrorism, for planning, abetting and perpetrating terrorist attacks.
Police said that as the spiritual leader of JI, Ba'asyir was responsible for planning several bombings in the country between 1999 and 2003.
Law No. 15/2003 states that terrorism is an organized crime, so Ba'asyir, as the leader of the organization, can be held responsible for its actions, Kemas said.
JI has been listed by the UN as a terrorist organization, and has been blamed for the Bali bombings and the JW Marriott hotel attack.
Police also have linked the recent bombing outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta that killed 10 people to JI. Several media outlets speculated the bombing was connected with the cleric when JI allegedly claimed responsibility for the attack on a web page, and warned that if Ba'asyir was not released more explosions would occur.
Ba'asyir was tried last year for involvement in terrorists activities, but prosecutors failed to prove their case and he was acquitted. However, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison for immigration offenses and document forgery.
He was rearrested shortly after his release on April 30 this year, triggering a violent clash between the cleric's supporters and the police that left more than 100 people injured.