Trial against 'Time' adjourned

Trial against 'Time' adjourned

JAKARTA: The South Jakarta district court adjourned for more than two months on Tuesday a defamation lawsuit filed by Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir against U.S. magazine Time and its journalists after the accused failed to show up.

There was no explanation for their absence.

"The trial is adjourned until March 11 to give a chance to the accused to attend the court hearing," said member judge Zainal Abidin on behalf of presiding Judge Lalu Mariyun.

Ba'asyir filed a defamation suit on Oct. 16 against Time magazine, its editor Karl Taro Greenfeld, writer Romesh Ratnesar and reporter Jason Tedjasukmana for an article in its Sept. 23, 2002 issue.

Time alleged that Ba'asyir, 64, believed to be the spiritual leader of regional terrorist network Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), authorized Omar Al Faruq to use JI operatives and resources to attack the U.S. embassy in Singapore. Al Faruq, according to Time, also said that Ba'asyir was behind the 1999 bombing of Jakarta's largest mosque to provoke religious conflict.

It also wrote: "Al-Faruq told the CIA that Ba'asyir was just as eager to work with Al-Qaeda, even dispatching his aides to procure weapons and explosives for Al-Faruq and his cronies."

Ba'asyir had denied the report's contents, saying he was slandered. --JP