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.