Govt rips U.S. over Ba'asyir

Govt rips U.S. over Ba'asyir

Jakarta, Deutsche Presse-Agentur

The government blasted on Thursday the double standards applied
by the United States and Australia in criticizing a supreme court
decision earlier this week to reduce the jail sentence of a
radical Moslem cleric and a similar court decision in Germany.

"We're sick and tired of people always second guessing us and
doubting us when the same standard is not being applied to
others," said Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty
Natalegawa.

Marty noted that when Germany Federal Supreme Court on March 4
overturned a 15-year jail sentence for Moroccan Monir al-
Motassadeq convicted of a role in the September 11, 2001 suicide
attack on the World Trade Center, no governments objected to the
decision.

"When the decision was reached by the Supreme Court in Germany
on March 4, overturning Motassadeq's 15 year sentence and
declaring a retrial, not a single government including the United
States and Australia, interpreted that as a lack of a resolve on
the part of the government of Germany to fight terrorism," said
Marty.

"Why do we not have the same treatment?" Marty told Deutsche
Presse-Agentur

U.S. Secretary for Homeland Security Tim Ridge during a visit
to Indonesia on Wednesday said he regretted the Indonesian
Supreme Court's recent decision to reduce the jail term of Abu
Bakar Ba'asyir and expressed hopes that the cleric would
eventually be brought to justice.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on Tuesday also
expressed disappointment over the court's decision.

Indonesia's Supreme Court reduced the jail sentence of Ba'asyir
from three years to 18 months, effectively allowing him to leave
jail next month, but refused to overturn the charges against him.

Ba'asyir, the alleged spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah
(JI) Moslem militant group blamed for the Bali bombings and other
terrorist acts, was found not guilty of terrorist links by the
Central Jakarta Court in its ruling last September but was
charged with the lesser charges of subversion and breaking
immigration laws.

The subversion charge was overturned by a higher court last
November.

The Central Jakarta Court ruled there was insufficient
evidence to prove he was the leader of the JI group which has
been linked to terrorist acts and to the al-Qaeda terrorist
group.

On March 4 Germany's Federal Supreme Court judges quashed
Motassadeq's February 2003 conviction on a technicality, saying
essential evidence, or the lack of it, had not been properly
addressed.