Police to submit dossier with or without Ba'asyir deposition
Police to submit dossier with or without Ba'asyir deposition
Damar Harsanto and Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Police investigators vowed Wednesday to submit their dossier on
Abu Bakar Ba'asyir to state prosecutors as soon as possible with
or without the Muslim cleric's deposition.
National Police deputy spokesman Sr. Comr. Prasetyo said on
Wednesday that the police had two valid pieces of evidence to
bring Ba'asyir to court as required under articles 183 and 184 of
the country's Criminal Procedures Code (KUHAP).
"We will submit the dossiers (to the prosecutor's office)
within 20 days with or without Ba'asyir's testimony," Prasetyo
said.
Ba'asyir, currently in police detention for his alleged role
in a string of church bombings in 2000, plotting to kill
President Megawati Soekarnoputri, and immigration violations, has
consistently refused to answer questions posed to him during
police interrogation.
Instead, Ba'asyir demanded that the police bring Omar al-
Faruq, who implicated him in the church bombings that killed
dozens, to confront him, and that he be released as a
precondition for him to answer questions from police
investigators.
Police have brushed aside Ba'asyir's demands as unwarranted.
Should police investigators submit Ba'asyir's dossiers without
his testimony, state prosecutors will have to press charges
against him based on testimony from witnesses, a situation that
would deprive him of the opportunity to clarify the allegations
made by those witnesses.
Prasetyo also said on Wednesday that Ba'asyir's stateless
status did not warrant his expulsion from Indonesia.
"We have no plan to extradite him ... We just want to inform
the public that technically he is stateless. The police still
have the authority to take legal action against him as the
offenses were committed in Indonesia," said Prasetyo.
National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar revealed on Tuesday
that Ba'asyir had lost his Indonesian citizenship as he had
violated article 17 (k) of Law No. 62 of 1958 on Indonesian
Citizenship, which stipulates that an Indonesian residing
overseas for five consecutive years or more for reasons other
than missions of state must report to the Indonesian
representative in his country of residence. Otherwise, he
automatically loses his Indonesian citizenship.
Ba'asyir's lawyer Achmad Michdan, however, said that Da'i's
statement was groundless, arguing that the cleric was the holder
of a lifelong Indonesian identity card that he had obtained in
Ngruki, Surakarta, Central Java.
"They (the police) cannot just ignore this, unless the ID card
is no longer recognized as a valid state document," Michdan said.
"If they question why he never reported to the Indonesian
Embassy while he was in Malaysia, of course he would never do so
as he was there in self-imposed exile," he said.
Ba'asyir fled to Malaysia in 1985 following a nine-year prison
sentence handed down to him for subversion during the Soeharto
regime.
Ba'asyir reportedly visited Australia to preach several times
in the 1990s while he was in self-imposed exile using a political
asylum document recognized by the Malaysian authorities.
Meanwhile, Ba'asyir's lawyers told the South Jakarta District
Court on Wednesday that his detention was illegal due to weak
grounds as well as improper conduct on the part of the police.
They demanded that the court order the police to release him
immediately.
The hearing was adjourned until Thursday to give both sides a
chance to present evidence and witnesses. Michdan said his team
would present evidence, including a video tape showing how the
police forcibly removed Ba'asyir from the PKU Muhammadiyah
hospital.
The lawyers also planned to present five witnesses, including
Ba'asyir himself, Ba'asyir's private doctor, and students of
Ba'asyir who were inside the hospital room when the police
removed him.
Police grounds for arresting and detaining Ba'asyir
1. Dossier No. BI/01/I/2002/BIK, on the Batam bombing, Jan. 25,
2002 (made by National Police's Intelligence and Security Agency)
2. Dossiers on Faiz Abu Bakar Bafana, Sept. 30, 2002. (Faiz is
accused by Singapore of being an activist of Jamaah Islamiyah.)
3. Dossiers on Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, Sept. 30, 2002
4. Statement of expert witness Slamet Santoso of the Directorate
General of Immigration, Oct. 3, 2002.
5. Dossiers on Omar Al-Faruq (legalized by the Indonesian Embassy
in the U.S.)
6. Dossiers on other witnesses legalized by the Indonesian
Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
7. Articles 48 and 45 of Immigration Law No 9/1992
8. Article 17 (k) and Article 18 (1) of Law No 62/1958 as amended
by Law No 3/1976 on Citizenship
9. Article 104 of the Criminal Code on treason involving the
assassination of the vice president or president.
Legal grounds to send Ba'asyir to court
Article 183: Judges need at least two valid pieces of evidence
to corroborate the charges against a defendant.
Article 184: Admissible evidence consists of testimony from
witnesses and experts, documents, proofs, and testimony from the
defendant.