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.