'No hidden motive in cleric's remission'

'No hidden motive in cleric's remission'

Ivy Susanti, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The Indonesian government had no ulterior motive for reducing
militant cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir's jail term and was merely
following the nation's laws, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan
Wirayuda says.

Speaking on Friday, Hassan said that the 1999 presidential
decree on prisoner remissions did not discriminate between
convicts.

Ba'asyir, who was originally jailed for 30 months for his role
in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people -- 88 of them
Australians, had his sentence reduced by four and a half months.

His sentence cut on Independence Day on Wednesday incited
anger from Australia and the victims' families.

"We didn't have any single intention to give a reduction to
Ba'asyir; the decree is applicable to all prisoners," Hassan
said.

The regular prisoner remission program grants jail term cuts
to prisoners with good behavior during Independence Day and
special religious holidays.

However, Hassan admitted the government was considering
modifying the decree. "In particular circumstances we should be
able to ignore the general rules stated in the decree," he said.

In Sydney, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had committed to
reviewing the system under which people involved in the Bali
bombings have had their prison sentences reduced.

Downer said Susilo had spoken to Australian Ambassador to
Indonesia David Ritchie and expressed his unhappiness over the
system after Ba'asyir had his jail term cut.

"The President has said that he is very disappointed himself
at the way that this decree has been implemented and he has given
the ambassador, and therefore the Australian government, a
commitment that this whole question of the remissions will now be
reviewed," he was quoted as saying on Friday by AFP.

Downer described Ba'asyir as the spiritual leader of Jamaah
Islamiyah, the group blamed for the twin Bali blasts.

He said it was unlikely Susilo would be able to reverse the
reductions already made but said he had been pleased with the
response from Indonesian officials.

"It certainly would be good news if he changed the decree in
such a way that there weren't any further remissions in relation
to those who were associated with the Bali bombings," he said.

The militant cleric was arrested a week after the bombings and
first put on trial the following year, however the terrorism
charges were later thrown out. He was then found guilty of
immigration offenses and jailed.

Police rearrested him in April last year as he left prison
after serving the immigration sentence.

Another 19 men convicted of various crimes, including robbing
a jewelry store to finance the bombings, harboring the bombers
and providing logistical support, had their sentences cut by
between one and seven months.

The remissions do not apply to those directly convicted of the
Bali bombings -- three men sentenced to death and four to life in
prison.