The case of Abubakar Ba'asyir

Some 750 Muslims from various Solo-based Muslim institutions and organizations staged rallies in Jakarta on Thursday.

Three of the rallies rejected the plan to execute the verdict against Abubakar Ba'asyir while another was held in conjunction with the hearing in which Ba'asyir filed a lawsuit against Singapore's Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew for accusing him of being a terrorist.

The execution of the verdict against the Ba'asyir, an executive of the Al-Mukmin Ngruki Muslim Boarding School in Sukoharjo, Central Java, is related to a case in 1985. At that time, the Supreme Court issued its ruling upholding the verdict of the High Court, which gave Ba'asyir a nine-year jail sentence for subversion.

Yet, before the verdict could be executed, Ba'asyir left Indonesia. He then lived in Malaysia and Singapore for several years and returned after the fall of former president Soeharto.

Strangely, the demand that the Supreme Court's verdict be carried out surfaced recently after he had already been in Indonesia for quite some time, when Singapore had accused him of being a terrorist.

Yet, the Supreme Court chief, Bagir Manan, said that the execution of the 1995 ruling was not limited by time.

The Minister of Justice and Human Rights, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, stated that the government was considering granting a pardon to Ba'asyir.

It would be prudent for the government to grant a pardon to Ba'asyir immediately so that the energy of Muslims will not be wasted on unnecessary things.

If there is anything of importance in the case of Ba'asyir, it is his lawsuit against Singapore, now being processed in the South Jakarta District Court. If Ba'asyir and his lawyer can prove before the panel of judges that he is not guilty, it will help improve the image of Indonesia as a country -- that it is not a den of terrorists.

-- Republika, Jakarta