Second attempt to try Bashir

By Matthew Moore, Herald Correspondent in Jakarta
October 28, 2004


Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah, will face five judges in the South Jakarta District Court this morning over his alleged role in the Bali bombings in October 2002 and the car bombing of the Marriott hotel in Jakarta in August last year.

Prosecutors originally planned to charge Bashir with both crimes using anti-terrorism laws passed after the Bali attacks, but were forced to change tack when the Constitutional Court said that the law could not be used retrospectively in the Bali case.

Today they will again accuse Bashir of responsibility for the Bali bombings, but will have to show he breached the criminal code in place at the time.

Prosecutors will still try to use the broader anti-terrorism laws to prove he was involved in the Marriott attack, in which 12 people were killed.

If convicted the 66-year-old could be sentenced to death. He also faces a life sentence over the Bali bombings.

Interest in the trial has forced South Jakarta District Court to prepare a large temporary court in the Department of Agriculture building where the former president Soeharto was tried for corruption.

Between 400 and 600 police will guard the court, with several hundred Bashir supporters likely to attend.

With Westzern governments and intelligence officials adamant about Bashir's leadership of Jemaah Islamiah, Indonesian police and prosecutors are under huge pressure to convict him for terrorist offences and ensure he remains locked up.

This week the country's new President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, told Time he would ban Jemaah Islamiah if it was shown to exist in Indonesia and be involved in terrorism.

Although he has been in custody since the days after the Bali bombing, Bashir has always insisted Jemaah Islamiah does not exist and that he has no role leading such a group. In the first case against him last year, the judges found the group existed but said there was no proof Bashir was its leader. Bashir was convicted only of minor immigration offences.

Bashir's lawyers say no new evidence has emerged and that today's proceedings are taking place only because of pressure from Western governments.

"He will stay in prison no matter what because that's the instruction coming from the United States," Wirawan Adnan said yesterday.

Another of his lawyers, Luthfie Hakim, said today's case would breach the principle of "double jeopardy", intended to prevent a person being prosecuted twice for the same thing.

Although Bashir was charged with treason in the first trial, and is now charged with terrorism, Mr Hakim said prosecutors wanted to conduct this case "on the same basis, with the same evidence and the same witnesses" in the first case.

Hearings are likely to take place twice a week and, Mr Hakim said, take three months.

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