Indonesia retrial starts for cleric in Bali, hotel attacks

The Seattle Times ^ | 10/19/0 | Ellen Nakashima

[Valin]

JAKARTA, Indonesia — The Indonesian government yesterday opened the retrial of an Indonesian cleric charged with leading an al-Qaida-linked group and inciting its members to carry out attacks against U.S. interests. Prosecutors seek to prove Abu Bakar Bashir, 66, is responsible for last year's suicide bomb attack on the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, which killed 12 people, mostly Indonesians. The charges are filed under a new anti-terror law, which authorizes the death penalty if he is found guilty.

The government also charged Bashir with involvement in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings, which killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. That charge was brought under the nation's criminal code and carries a life sentence.

"I am convinced that I am innocent," Bashir told reporters calmly before his trial. "The charges are baseless. All those people who do not agree with the interests of George Bush are called terrorists."

The United States accuses the white-bearded Bashir of heading Jemaah Islamiyah, a group linked to al-Qaida.

Last year, a court acquitted Baasyir of terror-related charges but sent him to prison for immigration violations. He served 18 months and was detained again upon his release while prosecutors prepared a new case. This time, they said, they have better evidence and stronger witnesses, though experts are skeptical.

Bashir "moved other people to conduct crimes of terrorism by using violence or the threat of violence to create an atmosphere of terror, resulting in mass casualties," prosecutor Salman Maryadi said at the trial, reading from the 65-page indictment.

Prosecutors said Bashir motivated members of Jemaah Islamiyah with a speech in 2000 at a training camp in the southern Philippines. Several militants who attended took part in the hotel attack, prosecutors said.

In Mindano, Bashir encouraged his followers to wage jihad or "holy war" against the United States and its allies, prosecutors said. He also spoke of meeting Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and relayed bin Laden's order to kill Americans and the citizens of countries allied with the United States, prosecutors said.

Bashir has been in custody since shortly after the Oct. 12, 2002, Bali bombings.

Prosecutors allege that two months before the Bali explosions, a Jemaah Islamiyah member, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, who has since been convicted and sentenced to death, asked Bashir what he would think if some friends "did an event in Bali?"

Baasyir allegedly replied, "It's up to you, since you know the situation in the field."

[Robert Smith]

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