Government to let suspect Ba'asyir go

Government to let suspect Ba'asyir go

P.C. Naommy and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta

The Ministry of Justice and Human Rights will release terror
suspect Abu Bakar Ba'asyir when he completes his jail term on
April 30 and deliver him to his family, the minister has said.

"We acknowledge that Ba'asyir is an Indonesian citizen and
therefore, we will protect his rights as a citizen," justice
minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra said after a ceremony on Tuesday to
celebrate the 40th anniversary of the ministry's penitentiary
directorate general.

Yusril, also leader of the Crescent Star Party (PBB) -- which
has a political platform based on sharia, or Islamic law -- said
the government's recognition of Ba'asyir's Indonesian citizenship
would benefit the cleric.

"If he was stateless, he must be deported. But as he is our
citizen, there is no way for other parties, including the United
States, to ask for his extradition. We are obliged to protect our
citizens and not hand them over to other countries," Yusril said.

The statement came as the police set an April 28 date for
interrogating Ba'asyir over his alleged role in terrorist
activities across the country. The interrogation was originally
scheduled for Monday, but Ba'asyir refused to turn up due to a
clerical error in which the police summons was addressed to the
warden of Salemba Penitentiary, Central Jakarta, where he is
serving his sentence -- and not Ba'asyir personally.

The justice ministry had doubted Ba'asyir's claim to
Indonesian citizenship after his arrest in October 2002, shortly
after the Bali bombings that killed at least 202 people.

Ba'asyir was indicted for treason, terrorism and immigration
violations, but a lower court found him guilty of only
immigration offenses and document forgery, and sentenced him to
18 months.

Police named Ba'asyir a suspect in terrorist activities last
month, but had never specifically linked him to the Bali blasts,
even though the cleric is thought to be the spiritual leader of
regional terrorist network Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), on which blame
was placed.

Brig. Gen. Pranowo, Director VI of the antiterrorism and bomb
department at National Police headquarters, said on Tuesday the
Muslim cleric would be questioned on Wednesday from 9 a.m. at
Salemba.

The police moved the site of the interrogation from police
headquarters upon the request of the Indonesian Ulemas Council
(MUI).

Several Islamic organizations have gone to police headquarters
to demand that Ba'asyir be released and have rejected all plans
to retain him under police custody after he completes his jail
term.

The Antiterrorism Law allows police to detain a terror suspect
up to six months.

"The plan to keep Ba'asyir in detention is unfair, especially
as it came just as his jail term was ending. Ba'asyir has said he
will cooperate during the interrogation if police do not put him
in detention," MUI secretary-general Din Syamsudin, who met with
police on behalf of the Muslim organizations, told National
Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Suyitno Landung Soedjono
and National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Basyir Barmawi.

Suyitno and Barmawi said they would convey the organizations'
complaints to National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar, who is
currently in Mecca on a minor haj.