Court rules Ba'asyir trial to go on

Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The South Jakarta District Court rejected on Thursday the defense argument of Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who will thus be standing trial for his alleged role in the 2002 Bali bombings and the 2003 attack on JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta.

"The defendant's plea and his lawyers' defense argument have no legal basis, we therefore reject them," presiding judge Soedarto told the hearing in the auditorium of the Ministry of Agriculture in South Jakarta.

Many of the seats in the ad hoc courtroom were vacant, and only about 100 supporters of Ba'asyir turned up for the hearing, in contrast to the hundreds at the cleric's indictment.

Among those attendant on Thursday was radical cleric Habib Hussein al-Habsyi, who was convicted in the 1970s for a blast at the Borobudur Temple in Central Java.

Ba'asyir's lawyers claim that the charges against the cleric violated the principle of double jeopardy, which rules that a defendant cannot be tried for the an offense under the same charges, laws or articles.

However, the presiding judge said this principle did not apply in the cleric's case.

Soedarto said Ba'asyir's first trial in 2003 aimed to prove that the cleric was the leader of regional terror network Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) and that he had tried to establish an Islamic state and launch a coup.

The court did not find Ba'asyir guilty for these primary charges, but found him guilty of violating the Immigration Law and sentenced him to two years.

"The charges at that time were related to his role in treason, while the trial now will try to prove the defendant's involvement as JI leader in two terror attacks," Soedarto said.

Dismissing another defense argument, the judge said his court had the authority to try Ba'asyir, as the Marriott bombing occurred within its jurisdiction.

The 66-year-old cleric is accused of planning and inciting followers to carry out the Bali bombings that claimed over 200 lives, mostly foreign holidaymakers, and the attack on American hotel chain JW Marriott Hotel, which killed 12.

After the hearing, Ba'asyir said he had expected the court's ruling.

"It is almost improbable and it almost never happens in this country that the defendant's plea is accepted by the court," he said.

He has accused law enforcers of trying him upon a request from the United States.

The trial was adjourned until Nov. 30, when it will hear witnesses, 76 of whom have been summoned to deliver their testimony in the case.

The court will hold a hearing twice a week, on Tuesday and Thursday, to accommodate the large number of witnesses.

Soedarto said the panel of five judges had not decided whether to accept Ba'asyir's request for release from detention, as they "might still need him for further interrogation".

The cleric was arrested shortly after the Bali bombings, and was rearrested in April, on the day he completed his sentence for the immigration offense.