 Radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir walked out of his terrorism trial in Indonesia yesterday to protest the reading of a witness interrogation identifying him as the leader of a group linked with al Qaeda. The 66-year old cleric is accused of heading the Jemaah Islamiah group, blamed for a string of bombings, including the 2002 Bali nightclub blasts that killed 202 people. Various governments have said the group is linked to al Qaeda. About one hour into the court session, Bashir, wearing a white shirt and Muslim skullcap, joined his lawyer in a walkout to protest against the reading without the witness present.| "I'm making like a banana and getting the heck outta here." |
"If the defence lawyer walks out, I'm not willing to be investigated in this trial without a lawyer," Bashir said before calmly leaving the court.| The man knows how to make an exit... |
His lawyer, Mohammad Asegaf, told the court: "With all due respect to this court, we are withdrawing ourselves from this trial". Bashir, who has been jailed during the trial, and his lawyer sat in a nearby room in the court complex while the trial continued. They returned later for the end of the session. The police report read by the prosecutor was of a witness who said that Bashir had taken over the leadership of Jemaah Islamiah after the death of its founder. At last week's session, Ali Imron, serving a life sentence for his role in the Bali blasts testified Bashir had nothing to do with that attack in the latest in a series of setbacks to the prosecution's case against the cleric.
This month, a former interpreter for US President George W Bush testified that Washington had pressed Indonesia to secretly detain and hand over the cleric before the Bali bombings. Bashir's defence lawyers had called the witness, Frederick Burns, to bolster their contention that Bashir's trial is politically motivated and the charges against him are a result of US pressure. A previous effort after the Bali bombings to convict him of leading Jemaah Islamiah failed. The cleric did, however, serve 18 months for immigration violations and was re-arrested using anti-terror statutes in April. The new trial began in October. If found guilty, Bashir could be sentenced to death. Some security experts see Jemaah Islamiah as al Qaeda's Southeast Asian wing.
Interestingly enough, so do most of its members ...| As well as a majority of Rantburg readers! |
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