Free Republic

More flee Darfur as pleas to Bashir go unheeded By David Blair, Africa Correspondent (Filed: 14/10/2004) An upsurge of fighting in Darfur has forced a further 220,000 people to flee their homes for refugee camps and severely disrupted the international relief effort, the United Nations said yesterday. The situation in Sudan's war-torn western region has continued to worsen despite heavy pressure on President Omar al-Bashir's regime and constant official assurances that the violence would be curbed.Members of the Sudanese Liberation Army on parade Mr al-Bashir repeated these pledges when he met Tony Blair in Khartoum last week and agreed to...

The Command Post links to an interview with Abu Bakar Bashir, the “spiritual leader” of Jemaah Islamiyah, the Indonesian arm of al Qaeda whose intention is creating an Islamic Caliphate in the Southern Pacific. This interview reveals the unbending and psychopathic mind that is prevalent in al Qaeda. He accuses America and Australia of orchestrating the recent attack in Jakarta, approves of suicide bombings, blames the plights of Indonesia (terrorism, floods, etc.) on its government’s unwillingness to embrace sharia, claims Afghanistan is innocent of complicity in 9-11, accuses America of working to destroy Islam, the list goes on. The interview...

The Indonesian Muslim cleric, Abu Bakar Bashir, is facing the prospect of being tried on terrorism charges. Indonesia's Prosecution Office has sanctioned a dossier of charges against Mr Bashir which will form the basis of an indictment. This will include charges relating to the Marriott Hotel attack in August last year, in which 12 people died. A court in Jakarta has sentenced a 31-year-old Indonesian, Idris, to ten years imprisonment for his part in the same attack. The defendant confessed to helping prepare the attack. He also admitted being involved in the October 2002 Bali bombings but the court could...

Top Indonesian terror suspect Abu Bakar Bashir could be charged in connection with last year's Jakarta Marriott hotel bombing, police have said, after charges linked to the Bali bombing were dropped. Detectives are still "investigating links" between Bashir's capacity as alleged head of the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and those who carried out the hotel attack, national police spokesman Inspector General Paiman said. "As the head of JI, it is very likely that he could have planned the Marriott attack before his arrest in October, 2002. This is what we are still trying to unravel," Gen Paiman said. Eleven...

Top Indonesian terror suspect Abu Bakar Bashir will no longer face charges of involvement in the Bali bombings following a landmark legal ruling last week, Indonesian police have said. The elderly Islamic cleric will still be charged under a tough anti-terrorism law which authorises the death penalty. National detective chief Suyitno Landung told reporters that police would delete accusations related to the October 2002 Bali attack when preparing an evidence file in preparation for a trial. The Constitutional Court last Friday ruled that the retroactive use of the 2003 anti-terrorism law to cover the Bali bombings was unconstitutional, even though...

Bali bombers may be freed by ruling By Marianne Kearney in Jakarta (Filed: 24/07/2004) The convictions of dozens of Islamists involved in the Bali bombings two years ago could be overturned after Indonesia's highest court ruled that the laws under which they were tried were unconstitutional. The constitutional court in Jakarta yesterday declared that the terrorism legislation was invalid as it had passed into law months after the bombings, in which 202 people died, including 28 Britons. The application of retroactive laws is banned under the Indonesian constitution, the court said. "This means we won, this is a victory for...

Police suspect militant Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir was behind a series of bombings that have rocked Indonesia since 1999, a report said. "Bombs have exploded everywhere across the country since 1999 ... We have strong evidence that Bashir was behind these bombings," national police detective chief Suyitno Landung was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying. Landung said police had many witnesses that would testify that Bashir planned the bombings. Police could not immediately be reached for comment. Indonesia has been hit by a series of bomb attacks since 1999, notably the October 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202...

Indonesian police fired warning shots into the air and clashed with supporters of Muslim preacher and terror suspect Abu Bakar Bashir in the eastern city of Makassar on Saturday, injuring dozens. A Reuters photographer saw dozens of police beat unarmed students with bamboo sticks while others fired a volley of shots into the air inside an Islamic university compound in the port city, 1,400 kilometres east of Jakarta. Witnesses said the clashes erupted after some of the estimated 500 student protesters dragged a police officer inside the university compound. "The police got angry and fired some shots into the air...

JEMAAH Islamiah-linked cleric Abu Bakar Bashir could face the death sentence for masterminding the Bali bombings, after being released from jail yesterday then immediately rearrested. New evidence, including a report from JI's training camp in The Philippines and statements from witnesses, will be used against the 65-year-old, whose transfer from Jakarta's Salemba prison to police headquarters caused a riot. Bashir was sentenced to four years' jail last year for treason and visa fraud. Charges that he led JI were dismissed for lack of evidence, and he later escaped the treason charges. The visa fraud sentence was reduced to 18 months,...

RENEGADE Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has been arrested and will be charged with masterminding the Bali bombings that killed 202 people including 88 Australians, according to reports. Associated Press reported this morning that Bashir, who until now has claimed ignorance of operations by terror network Jemaah Islamiah, would be charged with the Bali atrocity and other bombings by the group. Top anti-terror official at the security ministry Ansyaad Mbai said: "Abu Bakar Bashir will be charged with all bombings committed by Jemaah Islamiyah because he is the leader of the group," the AP reported. "Many witnesses have said the...

INDONESIAN police have said they will arrest the Jemaah Islamiah-linked cleric Abu Bakar Bashir when he is released today, a decision sure to enrage the cleric's supporters massing outside Jakarta's Salemba prison. National police spokesman Baasyir Bermawi said yesterday Bashir could be detained for a further six months while his links with the terrorist network Jemaah Islamiah were investigated. "We will make the arrest, but I am not sure of the technical details," Inspector-General Bermawi said. However, he said it was likely Bashir would be taken to police headquarters for the legal paperwork to be completed. Bashir has been accused...

DUBAI: Jailed Indonesian militant Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has rejected accusations of terrorism, while expressing admiration for al-Qa'ida leader Osama bin Laden, according to the Saudi weekly Al-Majallah. "The American accusations are pure allegations," Bashir, 65, said from prison in an interview for today's edition of the magazine, which is published in London. Bashir denied engaging in "terrorist activities" or being the head of the al-Qa'ida-linked Jemaah Islamiah terror group. Police say they have enough to charge him for a string of terror attacks, including the October 12, 2002, bombings in Bali that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians....

EXTREMIST Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir - accused of links to the Bali bombing - could have his imminent release from jail delayed by up to six months while another terrorism case is mounted against him. In a move that will enrage his hardline supporters, Bashir, to be released from Jakarta's Salemba prison on April 30, now has official suspect status. Under Indonesia's anti-terrorism laws he can be held for six months. "Principally, we have declared ... Abu Bakar Bashir a suspect and we have sent the order to prosecutors to initiate his interrogation," national police chief Dai Bachtiar said...

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) - Security police detained Sudan's leading Islamic opposition leader Hassan Turabi early Wednesday, his wife said. Wisal el-Mahdi told The Associated Press that a large squad of police came to their Khartoum home at about 1:30 a.m. local time and arrested her husband, saying he was "was wanted by the authorities." The arrest came days after the government detained members of Turabi's Popular National Congress and some military officers in connection with an alleged plot to overthrow the government of President Omar el-Bashir. "We were expecting this arrest" because of the alleged coup attempt, Wisal el-Mahdi said....

LONDON [MENL] -- Syria's Defense Ministry has been smuggling missile and weapons of mass destruction components to Sudan in an apparent effort to conceal them from Western inspection. Western intelligence sources said the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad has been flying shipments of Scud C and Scud D extended-range missiles as well as WMD components to warehouses in Khartoum since at least January 2004. The sources said the Syrian shipments to Khartoum were placed on civilian airliners but authorized and directed by the Defense Ministry. "There is widespread concern in the Syrian regime that Damascus will be the next...

ENRAGED by Australia's push to keep him in prison, the terrorist-linked Islamic preacher Abu Bakar Bashir has warned that Muslims could rise up against Australia and Australians. "The problem which is happening now is not just my problem, it has become a problem for Islam and the people of Islam," Bashir said from his Jakarta prison cell yesterday. "Be careful about that." The angry preacher, who is linked to several convicted Jemaah Islamiah extremists, warned Australians to be wary of Canberra's alliance with US President George W.Bush. "That's a Government controlled by Jews," he said. "The Australian people will be...

Indonesia has received 125 valuable transcripts from the United States interrogation of top terror suspect Hambali, a Foreign Ministry official says. Dino Pati Djalal, the director of the North America desk at the ministry, said: "They do contain valuable intelligence information. "The police will study this information further and make use of it as they see fit." He did not reveal the contents or say whether the transcripts might be used to open a new case against militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, whose three-year jail sentence for immigration offences and document forgery was halved by the Supreme Court this month....

FOREIGN Minister Alexander Downer says Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir prediction of a holy war against the west highlight his fanaticism. Bashir has predicted such a holy war will be directed against America and its Iraq war allies, Britain and Australia. Bashir is the suspected spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiah regional terror network. He made his claim in a secretly recorded interview from his Jakarta jail cell. He says he's convinced that sooner or later America and the countries assisting it will be destroyed in the name of Allah. Mr Downer says Bashir is implicitly calling for the destruction...

The Indonesian Government says there is no evidence to label Abu Bakar Bashir, a Muslim clerk and alleged spiritual leader of a radical Muslim group, as a terrorist. The statement comes after international criticism over a reduction of his prison term that will allow for his release next month. ''We have to be able to distinguish between labelling someone as being involved or not being involved in terrorism and a legal process that needs hard evidence,'' Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said. ''Labelling makes people expect that someone must be punished, but a legal process requires strong evidence to punish someone,''...

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - A jailed Muslim cleric sharply criticized the United States on Wednesday after the U.S. Homeland Security chief said the cleric was "intensely and deeply" involved in terrorism. Speaking to The Associated Press from his prison cell, Abu Bakar Bashir dismissed the remarks by Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge. "For him, all Islamic figures are enemies," Bashir said. "It is clear that his government is dishonest because it has killed innocent people in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine." Ridge came to Jakarta a day after the Supreme Court cut Bashir's prison term in half, meaning he likely...