Posted by NEWS on 15/10/2004, 15:43:47 JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian prosecutors filed terrorism charges on Friday against cleric Abu Bakar Bashir that could bring to trial within two weeks the accused leader of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah militant network. "It has been submitted to the South Jakarta court today," Didik Istiyanta, South Jakarta state prosecutor, told Reuters. The terrorism charges involve a suicide bombing outside the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta in 2003 that killed 12 people, South Jakarta court official Yunda Nasbi said. "They're related to the Marriott case," he told Reuters of the charges, adding that judges would be appointed on Monday. "I think the trial could be held as soon as in two weeks because this is a high-profile case which has attracted a lot of attention from the people," Nasbi said. The 65-page dossier against Bashir was submitted along with thousands of pages of evidence. For security reasons the trial would not be held at the South Jakarta court, but in a larger venue at the Department of Agriculture that was the site of an abortive corruption trial of former autocrat Suharto but which was dropped on the grounds of his ill health. Indonesian president-elect Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, due to be sworn in on Oct. 20, has said strong action to fight terrorism will be one of his top priorities. A Bashir lawyer, Achmad Michdan, said he expected the defense team would ask the court not to convene the trial during the month of Ramadan, a major religious period for Muslims during which they fast from sunrise to sunset. Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country. "We are now entering the fasting month. We should respect it ... and postpone the trial," Michdan told Reuters. Ramadan began on Friday. The attorney general's office had said Bashir would face charges of helping to plot the Marriott hotel blast and involvement in a conspiracy to hide large amounts of explosives. Authorities believe Bashir inspired militants who bombed nightclubs on the tourist island of Bali in 2002 and who carried out the Marriott bombing and other attacks. Bashir, who denies any connections with Jemaah Islamiah or with terrorism, was first arrested days after the Bali blasts that killed 202 people amid suspicions he led Jemaah Islamiah and had ties to violent acts. However, following a trial using the ordinary criminal code, the court said the evidence insufficient to prove Bashir led the group and ultimately only convictions related to immigration violations were upheld in appeals courts. After Bashir had served his sentence for those convictions, Indonesian police detained him under a tough anti-terror law passed after the Bali bombings. Western countries as well as Indonesia's Southeast Asian neighbors have closely followed the legal actions against Bashir, viewing them as a litmus test of Jakarta's commitment to fight terrorism. Jemaah Islamiah has been blamed not just for attacks in Indonesia, the world's fourth-most populous country, but for planned and actual violence throughout the region. A car bomb outside Australia's embassy in Jakarta last month, which killed nine, is the latest attack that intelligence experts blame on the group. Muslims account for some 85 percent of Indonesia's 220 million people, but the vast majority are moderate. (With additional reporting by Emmy Zumaidar) © Copyright Reuters 2004
Indonesia Files Terrorism Charges Against Cleric Bashir
By Tomi Soetjipto and Jerry Norton
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