Despite the belief that controversial cleric Abu Bakar Bashir is guilty of a serious terrorism charge punishable by death, prosecutors on Monday recommended a lesser life sentence for allegedly inciting people to raise funds for a paramilitary training camp in Aceh.
Prosecution head Andi Muhammad Taufik told the South Jakarta District Court that Bashir was guilty under Articles 14 and 11 of the Anti-Terror Law. Article 14 states that anyone convicted of mobilizing people for acts of terrorism shall be sentenced to death or life in prison.
Andi said Bashir had also collected donations from at least two people, businessman Haryadi Usman and Dr. Syarif Usman, and channeled the money to the Aceh camp. The two men have already been sentenced to four and a half years in prison in connection with the case.
However, the prosecutor said the 72-year-old Bashir should be cleared of other serious charges, including the illegal possession or smuggling of arms and explosives and the use of violence to terrorize people, because they couldn’t be proven in court.
“There is no excuse that could justify the crime committed by the defendant and accordingly he should get the equitable punishment,” Andi said.
“The defendant, as a religious leader, should set a good example for his followers, but instead he incited them to commit actions which are against the law. The defendant has testified inconsistently in this court, he has been convicted before and he has shown no remorse for his crime.”
The only mitigating factor, Andi said, was that Bashir was “elderly.”
“We recommend that the panel of judges pronounce the defendant guilty of plotting and inciting the act of raising funds for terrorism and sentence him to life imprisonment,” he said.
Dozens of Bashir’s supporters greeted the recommendation with cries of “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great”) and shouted insults at prosecutors and judges.
Speaking after the hearing, a defiant Bashir said his terror trials since 2003 had been engineered by thogut, or infidels.
“I’m fighting for Islam, but this is the country of the thogut, so here I am. Let Allah deliver the punishment,” Bashir said.
His attorney, Achmad Michdan, slammed the prosecution demand as groundless and a misleading exaggeration. He said the fund-raising was intended for jihad in Palestine and Bashir had played no major role in the Aceh paramilitary training.
“Yes there was paramilitary training in Aceh using arms, but the involvement by ustad [teacher] was not significant. As for the fund-raising, ustad has said the money was intended for Palestine, amounting to around Rp 300 million [$35,000],” the lawyer said.
“One of the [prosecution] considerations is that ustad has been convicted before, but it only reminds us that ustad has been previously accused of terrorism twice but never proven.”
Michdan said only two people — former Bashir acolytes Luthfi Haidaroh and Haris Amir Falah — had testified that the cleric was directly involved in Aceh, and that the two had been misled into giving false testimony by their legal teams.
The trial resumes on May 25.
Bashir was first tried in 2003 for treason related to a series of church bombings on Christmas Eve in 2000. The court cleared him of the terrorism charges but he served 20 months for immigration offenses. In October 2004, he was rearrested as he left prison to face charges related to the 2003 JW Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta and the 2002 Bali bombings.
He was sentenced to two and a half years for a “sinister conspiracy” in the Bali bombings but cleared on charges related to the hotel attack. In 2006, however, the Supreme Court overturned his terror conviction.
(x the JG)
ma 9 mei 2011 - 21:17