Controversy in Jakarta after Muslim terrorist’s sentence reduced
by Mathias Hariyadi
High Court cuts Abu Bakar Baasyr’s 15-year prison sentence down to nine. Wiretapped phone conversations that show his responsibility could not be entered as evidence during the trial.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) – The decision to reduce the prison sentence of a notorious religious fundamentalist, Abu Bakar Baasyr, has caused a heated debate in Indonesia. The Jakarta High Court cut the 15-year sentence he received from the South Jakarta Court in June down to nine on humanitarian grounds. He had been convicted of indirectly providing financial aid to terrorists who carried out violence in Aceh.
Baasyr was convicted in 2005 of conspiracy for his involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, mostly tourists. For that, he spent 26 of his 30-month sentence in jail. Before that, he was found guilty of breaking immigration laws and given a three-year sentence, which was also reduced to 20 months.
The decision to reduce his sentence again has provoked the ire of Wahyu Ardianto, president of Asosiasi Korban Bom Indonesia” (Askobi), a national association representing terror victims.
Ardianto himself was seriously injured along with dozens more in the Marriot Hotel bombing in Jakarta in 2003 in which the bomber died.
“The man who carried out the fatal terrorist attack and those who funded terror plan are responsible for their inhuman violence,” Ardianto said. “Reducing the sentence strongly offends our feelings.”
According to Ahmad Sobari, a spokesman for the Jakarta High Court, the decision to reduce the sentence was based on the lack of evidence in the main charge. Other charges were proven in court but “Baasyr is not the mastermind of the project”.
Still the “firebrand cleric is a terror suspect,” said Mardigu Wowiek Prasantyo, a Jakarta-based intelligence analyst. “This kind of case cannot be properly addressed within the ‘ordinary’ legal system. “Something more particular –let’s say anti-terror laws—should be put into place in this matter,” he explained.
One of the major obstacles investigators have encountered in trying to demonstrate Baasyr’s responsibility is a law that bans the use in court of wiretapping to show criminal behaviour.
Phone conversations indicate in fact that Baasyr did fund the Aceh terror group. But the impossibility of producing the evidence meant that the court could not demonstrate his guilt.
A new anti-terrorism law giving investigators more powers should be adopted, the expert said.
Baasyr was convicted in 2005 of conspiracy for his involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, mostly tourists. For that, he spent 26 of his 30-month sentence in jail. Before that, he was found guilty of breaking immigration laws and given a three-year sentence, which was also reduced to 20 months.
The decision to reduce his sentence again has provoked the ire of Wahyu Ardianto, president of Asosiasi Korban Bom Indonesia” (Askobi), a national association representing terror victims.
Ardianto himself was seriously injured along with dozens more in the Marriot Hotel bombing in Jakarta in 2003 in which the bomber died.
“The man who carried out the fatal terrorist attack and those who funded terror plan are responsible for their inhuman violence,” Ardianto said. “Reducing the sentence strongly offends our feelings.”
According to Ahmad Sobari, a spokesman for the Jakarta High Court, the decision to reduce the sentence was based on the lack of evidence in the main charge. Other charges were proven in court but “Baasyr is not the mastermind of the project”.
Still the “firebrand cleric is a terror suspect,” said Mardigu Wowiek Prasantyo, a Jakarta-based intelligence analyst. “This kind of case cannot be properly addressed within the ‘ordinary’ legal system. “Something more particular –let’s say anti-terror laws—should be put into place in this matter,” he explained.
One of the major obstacles investigators have encountered in trying to demonstrate Baasyr’s responsibility is a law that bans the use in court of wiretapping to show criminal behaviour.
Phone conversations indicate in fact that Baasyr did fund the Aceh terror group. But the impossibility of producing the evidence meant that the court could not demonstrate his guilt.
A new anti-terrorism law giving investigators more powers should be adopted, the expert said.
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