'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.