Questioning of Ba'asyir still undecided

Questioning of Ba'asyir still undecided

P.C. Naommy, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Police have yet to set a date for questioning cleric Abu Bakar
Ba'asyir over his suspected involvement in terrorist activities.

"We haven't set any date for questioning Ba'asyir. It is not
true that we had scheduled the cleric's questioning for Wednesday
as reported in the media," deputy police spokesman Brig. Gen.
Soenarko D.A. said on Wednesday.

He, however, admitted that the police had sent a letter to the
Directorate of Penitentiaries asking for permission to take
Ba'asyir out of the Salemba Penitentiary for questioning.

According to Soenarko, police are currently gathering
additional evidence to build a strong case against Ba'asyir.

"In this case, police are not focusing their investigation on
just one person and we are not being intimidated by anyone,
including the U.S.," Soenarko said.

The coordinator for Ba'asyir's defense team, Mohammad
Assegaff, alleged that police were just scrambling to seek vague
grounds to question Ba'asyir. He said that the United States
had pressured Indonesia to question Ba'asyir.

Assegaff told The Jakarta Post that police had not followed up
their plan to question the cleric.

"Our suspicion is that police actually do not have a strong
basis to question Uztad Abu, and this has become clearer, as up
until now they have not determined the status of Ba'asyir," he
said.

Assegaff said the police would have to make clear which
terrorist attacks was Ba'asyir implicated in if they wanted to
charge the Indonesian Mujahiddin Council (MMI) chairman under Law
No. 15, 2003 on terrorism.

Police said on Tuesday that they would use the testimonies of
suspected terrorists now detained in the Philippines, Singapore,
and Malaysia to investigate Ba'asyir's involvement in terrorist
activities.

Assegaff reiterated that the Supreme Court had quashed in
early March a charge that Ba'asyir was the leader of regional
terrorist network Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), which has been blamed
for a series of terrorist attacks in the country, including the
deadly Bali bombing on Oct. 12, 2002.

Also on Wednesday, about one hundred Muslim activists, calling
themselves the Surakarta Muslim Society, protested in front of
the National Police Headquarters.

The group, led by Mudzakir, called for the dismissal of
National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar for bowing to pressure
from the United Sates.

He said that the police had treated Ba'asyir arbitrarily and
defamed him by saying that he may have been involved in several
bombing cases in the country. He said that the Supreme Court had
only found him guilty of immigration violation and ID card
forgery.

Mudzakir, along with 24 other members of the group, was
allowed to convey his message to National Police spokesman Insp.
Gen. Ba'asyir Barmawi.

After the meeting, Mudzakir complained that police gave
standard answers to their demands.

"They are so good at playing with words. They say they don't
plan to interrogate him, only to ask for an explanation," he
said.

From the National Police headquarters, the protesters went to
visit Ba'asyir at Salemba Penitentiary in Central Jakarta.