Massive Security for Abu Bakar Bashir’s Trial

Indonesia will deploy 1,200 police at Thursday’s trial of radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who is facing the death penalty for terrorism charges.

The 72-year-old bespectacled cleric is accused of seven counts of terrorism related to a paramilitary training camp that was discovered last February in Aceh province, court official Supriyantorro said.

Hundreds of Bashir’s supporters are expected to rally outside the trial, which gets under way as Indonesia tries to contain a spate of religious violence that has left three people dead and several churches badly damaged.

“Around 1,200 police officers have been readied to go to South Jakarta,” police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar said, referring to the district court in the capital where the trial will take place.

“We hope their presence will provide a guarantee for the judges to conduct the trial as best as possible. We hope their presence can deal with whatever situation that might arise, inside or outside the court.”

Bashir’s charges include “mobilizing people for acts of terror”, which carries the death sentence, and financing Islamist militants.

Police have said the group was training to carry out Mumbai-style attacks on Western targets and political figures in Jakarta.

It is the third time the cleric has faced terror-related charges since 2002 but police have failed to make any of the allegations stick.

He served almost 26 months for conspiracy over the 2002 bombings of tourist nightspots in Bali that killed more than 200 people, before being cleared and released in 2006.


Agence France-Presse

Update: Firebrand Islamic Cleric’s Trial Adjourned



The trial of a firebrand Indonesian Islamic cleric on terror charges opened on Thursday and was swiftly adjourned on a technicality. Abu Bakar Bashir, spiritual leader of the outlawed southeast Asian militant network Jemaah Islamiah, faces fresh charges that carry the death penalty in a trial which refocuses attention on Indonesia’s fight against Islamic terror groups.

Indonesia has won praise for largely defeating Islamic terror, but analysts and rights groups are concerned a recent spike in religious intolerance shows extremism still has a hold on the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

The trial opened under tight security in the capital, but was adjourned until Monday after judges granted a defence request for a postponement on technical grounds.

Foreign investment has poured into Indonesia’s bond and stock markets thanks to improved political stability and successful efforts to combat Islamic militancy since the last significant attack -- the bombing of two hotels in Jakarta in 2009.

But this week has twice seen mobs of youths running riot in the name of defending Islam -- first killing three members of the Ahmadiyya sect are considered heretical by mainstream Muslims, and then torching two churches to protest against the perceived light sentence of a Catholic accused of blasphemy.

Despite no significant terror attacks in Indonesia for nearly two years, security in the capital is pervasive, with checkpoints placed at the entrance of all major shopping malls, hotels, embassies and government buildings.

Wednesday’s trial will be the third for the frail 72-year-old Bashir, who is officially the caretaker of an Islamic boarding school on Java island but has long been considered the spiritual leader of the shadowy Jemaah Islamiyah movement, which seeks to establish a Muslim caliphate across Southeast Asia.

He was found not guilty of terror offences in two previous trials that attempted to link him to the 2002 Bali bombings, but only spent time in prison for lesser charges such as immigration offences.

On Thursday scores of his supporters filled the public gallery of a south Jakarta courtroom, waiting for him to be brought to the dock where he will be charged with helping establish a terror training camp and funding terror organizations -- offences which carry the death penalty.

Bashir is also the “Amir” of above-ground Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT) Islamic group, which draws support from thousands of often unemployed youths who attend public rallies and sermons by firebrand preachers.

Their ranks have provided recruits for even more radical organizations with links to Jemaah Islamiyah and Al Qaeda.

Analysts say that if Bashir is found guilty he would more likely face a long jail term than execution. But they say the threat remains of other terror groups forming across the archipelago of more than 17,000 islands which are home to around 240 million people, most of them moderate Muslims.

“Bashir is an important figure and there is stronger evidence against him this time,” said Sidney Jones of the International Crisis Group (ICG). “But locking him away does not change the security situation here -- there are still small groups, some with no connection to Bashir, that could carry out attacks.

“The difficult problem is not so much the terrorists but the radical civil society activists who preach intolerance and incite violence against religious minorities. The government has been firm against terrorists but it has allowed religious intolerance to escalate out of control.”

Jakarta Police said they had deployed about 3,000 personnel to guard the court where the trial was taking place and armored trucks with water cannon at the ready were stationed in the vicinity.

A team of 32 prosecutors have prepared a 93-page indictment against Bashir, court officials said “The highlight (of the indictment) is the defendant was gathering funds ... to be used for paramilitary training in Aceh and to purchase weapons,” Andi Muhammad Taufik said.

Before that camp was fully established it was shut down by authorities following a raid in which three police officers and a civilian were killed.

Police said the Aceh-based group had planned to assassinate President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and other government officials at an independence day ceremony last August.

Police also said they held documents saying Bashir was the leader of a group which calls itself al Qaeda of Indonesia and which is the umbrella for four militant Islamic groups including JI, JAT, Kompak and Indonesia Islamic State (NII).