Court rules Ba'asyir trial to go on

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.