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Southeast Asia
Bashir is now a terrorism suspect
2004-04-16
Indonesian police have officially declared Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir a suspect in terrorism cases, the attorney general's office said. "The Jakarta prosecutors' office has received a letter from police declaring the start of an investigation into Abu Bakar Bashir," attorney general's spokesman Kemas Yahya Rahman told AFP. He did not know what case Bashir had been implicated in or when he would be questioned.

National police chief General Da'i Bachtiar said Wednesday police would question Bashir, who is due to be freed from jail on April 30, as a suspect in terrorism cases. "There is information, there are witnesses, there is evidence which could be used for a further process regarding actions of this individual both at home and abroad," he said. Koran Tempo newspaper quoted an unidentified source at the Jakarta prosecutor's office as saying Bashir will be charged with involvement in several bombings in Indonesia along with Abu Rusdan, self-confessed JI caretaker chief. A Jakarta court in February jailed Rusdan for three-and-a-half years for shielding key Bali bomber Mukhlas from justice. The source said both men would probably be tried together. A police spokesman said earlier this month they would use testimony and statements from terrorism suspects detained in the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore in the Bashir probe. The spokesman said police would also study transcripts of US interviews with top terror suspect Hambali -- a suspected senior figure in both JI and Al-Qaeda -- who has been in US custody since his arrest last August in Thailand.
Posted by:Dan Darling

#1  Just an update from AP, Bashir Declared Criminal Suspect in Indonesia

Key points being:
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesia's police chief officially declared militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir a criminal suspect on Friday, allowing authorities to keep him in jail when his current period of detention ends later [t]his month.
* * *
Bachtiar did not say whether police would demand Bashir's continued detention. But his ambiguity was likely due to the political sensitivity of the case, which many people here believe is an example of foreign meddling in Indonesia's internal affairs.
* * *
Under Indonesia's anti-terror law, declaring someone a suspect means that authorities can apply to a magistrate for permission to keep him in prison for six months during an investigation. Earlier this week, Indonesian police said they may declare Bashir a suspect in the Bali bombings - the deadliest terror attack since Sept. 11, 2001. Bashir has predicted that authorities would hold him indefinitely for further questioning. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist -- the Indonesians just need to "do it by the book," with the evidence necessary to permanently dispose of the guy.
Posted by: cingold   2004-04-16 3:07:31 AM  

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