The Terrorist at his day job on DS9
Posted on 03/02/2005 11:23:08 PM PST by HundredPercenter
JAKARTA (AFP) - Indonesian Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, accused of leading an Al-Qaeda-linked group blamed for bombings across Asia, was jailed for two-and-a-half-years at the end of his second terrorism trial.
AFP Photo
Bashir was cleared of terrorism allegations but was jailed by a five-member panel of judges after being found guilty of involvement in a "sinister conspiracy" that led to the 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202 people.
"The panel of judges decided that the defendant, Abu Bakar Bashir, has been legally and convincingly proven of engaging in a sinister conspiracy that led to fire and the death of others," Chief judge Sudarto said.
The judges said that his words to key Bali bomber Amrozi and Hutomo Pamungkas during a meeting in Solo, Central Java in 2002 had constituted the conspiracy.
Bashir had told them "I leave it up to you" when he was notified by Amrozi that he and his friends were planning "a program" in Bali.
The verdict was greeted by yells of "Allahu Akbar (God is greatest)" by his followers both inside and outside the court. The judges were immediately whisked out of the room by armed police.
More than 800 police were deployed around the agriculture ministry complex in south Jakarta where the trial was being held. It is the second time the man accused of leading the Jemaah Islamiyah group has faced terrorism charges.
The white-bearded Bashir, 66, looked frail in court dressed in his traditional white robe and shawl, a white skullcap and glasses.
Prosecutors had demanded an eight-year prison sentence for Bashir for failing to prevent Jeemaah Islamiyah members from carrying out terror attacks.
The main charge that Bashir and his supporters planned the Bali bombings and the bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in 2003 had been dropped for lack of evidence.
Prosecutors in their indictment said that as Jemaah Islamiyah chief, Bashir visited one of its training camps in the Philippines in 2000 and allegedly relayed a "ruling from Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) which permitted attacks and killings of Americans and their allies".
Indonesia has come under pressure from the United States and Australia to act against Bashir, and the trial has heard evidence that Indonesia was asked to hand him over to the US authorities.
Shortly before Thursday's court session, Bashir said that if he was found guilty it would be a "tyrannical verdict", but he appealed to his followers not to react with violence if he was convicted.
"If Allah decides to free me, then we should not be overly happy but if Allah decides that I remain in detention, if the judges do not free me, we should also not react excessively," Bashir said.
Bashir maintained that US President George W. Bush (news - web sites), "the enemy of Allah", has pressured Indonesia to jail him to stop him campaigning for Islamic law.
Inside the auditorium around 100 Bashir supporters packed the public gallery. Around 400 Bashir supporters and dozens of members of the hardline Front for the Defenders of Islam group gathered outside the court.
Bashir was arrested a week after the October 2002 Bali bombings and was first put on trial the following year.
Prosecutors failed to prove that he waged a terror campaign to topple the government and led Jemaah Islamiyah, which is committed to setting up a pan-Islamic state across Southeast Asia.
However judges found him guilty of immigration offences and he was jailed.
Police rearrested him in April last year as he left prison after serving the immigration sentence, citing new evidence of terrorist links and of his Jemaah Islamiyah leadership.
Jemaah Islamiyah has been blamed for a series of terror attacks in the region, including a suicide bombing outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta last September that killed 11 people.
Yes, why bother.
“I had time to think and a couple of thoughts emerged. One was that you're guilty, if you harbor a terrorist, because I knew these terrorists like al-Qaeda liked to prey on weak government and weak people. The other thought that came was the opportunity to fashion a vast coalition of countries that would either be with us or with the terrorists.”-President Bush
Some countries always support those terrorists .
has to be something they didn't tell us in this Al Article
These clerics from hell are going to have to answer to a higher power someday for the murders and mayhem they have enabled.
If I were an Islamofascist, and I was caught, and had a trial, (even though I killed 202 plus people), --and got that kind of prison sentence -- I too would should ALLAH AHKBAR!! upon leaving the court.
Ping
The Terrorist at his day job on DS9
Thanks- missed this one.
Marianne Kearney in Jakarta 03mar05
RADICAL Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has been using his jail time to recruit hundreds of radicals through Islamic schools set up inside Jakarta prisons with the approval of the authorities.
Indonesia's Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir points at a journalist as he leaves a makeshift court in southern Jakarta on February 25, 2005. A verdict will be delivered next week in the trial on terrorism charges of Bashir who is linked to deadly bomb attacks, an Indonesian judge said on Friday. REUTERS/Darren Whiteside
Bashir will be in court today to hear the verdict in his trial on terror charges.
A panel of judges will decide whether or not he was the alleged spiritual leader of the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah network blamed for a string of attacks, including the Bali bombings of 2002. But the radical cleric appears to have found prison to be one of his easiest and most successful recruiting grounds.
Bashir, along with leaders from other militant Muslim groups such as the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), has set up a series of schools or pesantren not just in Cipinang, where he was detained over the past two years, but also in two other Jakarta prisons – Salemba and Tangerang.
FPI leaders say the prison pesantren are a cheap and easy way for these groups to recruit potential radicals.
"If we build new boarding schools we must have money for food and buildings, but in prison it is all free because it comes from the Government. So we co-operate with the Government to develop human resources," says Hilmy Bakar, the vice-chairman of the Defenders Front.
Bashir, often accompanied by FPI leader Habib Rizieq, regularly holds Muslim prayer sessions for students at his prison boarding school called Pesantren Attawaibin.
This has 500 members drawn from the prison population, while Salemba, where Habib served a short jail term for inciting followers to destroy bars, has 300 members, as does Tangerang Prison.
Bakar claims Bashir and Rizieq's teachings focus on avoiding sin and belief in Allah, thus developing the prisoner's "human resources". Bashir and Rizieq are not teaching the prison inmates to use violence, but to attack the West with ideas, he says.
Bashir, who gives Muslim teachings two to three times a week at Cipinang Prison, planned to continue leading the pesantren there even if he is freed in today's court case, said Farid Syafi'i, the FPI secretary-general.
Prosecutors have struggled to prove the white-bearded cleric had a hand in attacks carried out and abandoned plans to seek the death penalty. Instead, they have sought an eight-year prison term after a succession of witnesses either withdrew testimony or refused to give evidence naming Bashir as the "emir", or head, of JI.
Additional reporting AAP
We should be doing more of this throughout the world, ala Mossad (hopefully, we are, and it's not being publicized).
What I am hearing from a source is that Bashir may actually be getting out. He won't be jailed. To make things worse - Bashir is not recruiting more 'holy warriors' -
I covered this back in January and at the time I was surprised at how the MSM has numerous conflicting stories at what was happening.
Media in Italy and Yahoo were reporting that Burks (you can read more about him) was a witness for the prosecution - that is false - he was a witness for the defense and was trying to get Bashir off.
My archives for January have several reports up - to which Burks himself replied here are two - but there are a few more if you are interested -
You might find these of interest -
Betrayal, Blackmail, Bribes and Extortion = Ceasefire
Correct that above to read that Bashir IS recruiting warriors.
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