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.