|
US disappointed in bali bombing sentencing { March 3 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/03/international/asia/03cnd-indo.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/03/international/asia/03cnd-indo.html
March 3, 2005
Cleric Guilty of Conspiring in Bali Nightclub Bombings
By RAYMOND BONNER
JAKARTA, March 3 - After a trial that lasted for several months, an Indonesian court today acquitted the radical Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir of the most serious terrorism charges in connection with the bombings in Bali and of the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, and convicted him of only one count of criminal conspiracy.
The five-judge panel then sentenced the soft-spoken 66-year old cleric to 30 months in jail, but said that he would receive credit for the 10 months he has already served while awaiting trial.
Mr. Bashir, the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyaah, a suspected terrorist organization, was acquitted on six of the seven counts, including charges that he had been to a terrorist training camp in the Philippines. Even on the one count on which he was convicted, in connection with the Bali bombings, the judges said he had no direct role in those bombings, but that he "knew that the perpetrators of the bombing were people who have been trained in Pakistan and Afghanistan."
The United States and Australia, which had pressured Indonesia to prosecute Mr. Bashir for more than two years, expressed disappointment with the sentence.
But the prosecution's case against Mr. Bashir was hampered because the Bush Administration has refused to make available to the Indonesians two key Al Qaeda members who are in American custody, Riudan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, and Omar al-Faruq.
Both men, who are Indonesian nationals, have given their American interrogators strong evidence directly linking Mr. Bashir and Jemaah Islamiyah to terrorist activities, American and Australian officials have said. But the Americans will not allow Indonesian officials to interrogate either man.
"We need Hambali very much," Ansyaad Mbai, the head of counter-terrorism in Indonesia's Ministry for Political and Security Affairs, said in an interview today. "We fight to get access to him, but we have failed."
Australian officials have also urged the Bush Administration to make Hambali and Mr. Farooq available to the Indonesians.
Mr. Mbai added that while he knew the American government would not be happy with the short sentence handed down today, it was "very significant" that the judges had sentenced Mr. Bashir at all.
"It shows our judges have the courage to punish him."
The Bush Administration began prodding the Indonesian government to prosecute Mr. Bashir even before the Bali bombings, in October of 2002. But it wasn't until after those bombings that the government acted.
He was subsequently acquitted on terrorism and subversion charges after a trial in late 2003, but convicted on minor immigration violations. When he finished his sentence last April, and was released from jail, the United States and Australia began working on the Indonesian government to file new charges, which it did, resulting in today's verdict.
In general, Indonesian officials have been reluctant to move against Mr. Bashir for fear of antagonizing the fundamentalist Islamic community. But Mr. Bashir's following has not appeared to be that strong. The protests when he was arrested were small, and today, his supporters at the court were loud in chants and shouts of "Allah Akbar," but numbered less than 500 hundred.
The American embassy sought to cast the verdict in the most favorable light.
""We respect the independence of Indonesia's judiciary, and welcome the conviction of this known terrorist leader," said an embassy spokesman, Max Kwak. "We also welcome the Indonesian court's recognition of the existence of the Jemaah Islamiyah in Indonesia and its involvement in violent terrorist attacks that have left hundreds of Indonesians and others dead and injured."
He added: "Given the gravity of the charges on which he was convicted, we are disappointed at the length of the sentence."
Australia's foreign minister, Alexander Downer, used similar language. "It's disappointing that the sentence is just for two-and-a-half years," he said in Canberra.
Mr. Bashir's lawyers contended today, as they have all along, that their client was on trial because of political pressure from the United States. They said they planned to appeal.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
|
|
