Police may implicate Ba'asyir to Bali blast
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.