Police may implicate Ba'asyir to Bali blast

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The National Police are trying to implicate Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir in the Bali blasts that killed 202 people almost two years ago, to the apparent surprise of detectives on the island.

Spokesman for the Bali police, Sr. Comr. Pengasihan Gaut, told Antara on Sunday that Jakarta had informed the provincial police the cleric had been named a suspect in the bombings, the worst since the terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

"That's all that we know. Whether he masterminded or planned it, or played another role will need further investigation," Pengasihan said.

National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said on Friday that Ba'asyir was implicated in terrorist activities in the country. The police have set an April 7 date for his questioning.

"We don't know Ba'asyir's specific role in the Bali bombings, because we never conducted a thorough investigation into this," Pengasihan said.

The investigators of the Bali blasts arrested 34 suspects and brought them to justice. Three of them were sentenced to death, three received life sentence and the rest were handed jail terms ranging from three years to 20 years.

None of those convicted suggested during their trial that Ba'asyir had a role in the terror attacks. The investigation team did not charge Ba'asyir with involvement in the blasts.

Ba'asyir has been labeled by the United States, Australia and Singapore as being the spiritual leader of Jamaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group blamed for the Bali bombing and the attack on JW Marriot Hotel in Jakarta in August 2002, which claimed 14 lives. The cleric is currently serving an 18-month jail term for an immigration violation and document forgery, with his release being set for April 29.

Last month the U.S. handed over the latest transcript of their interrogation of suspected JI leader Riduan Isamuddin, alias Hambali, who has been in U.S. custody at an undisclosed place since his capture last August in Thailand.

Pengasihan said that although the bombing took place in Bali, there is a possibility of conducting the investigation into Ba'asyir's role in the extraordinary crime outside the island.

A suspect in the Bali bombings is currently being tried in the Central Sulawesi capital of Palu and another was sentenced in Jakarta for sheltering the alleged bombers.