Bashir on Bali bombing charges
2004-04-30 08:09
Jakarta - Indonesian police arrested radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir as he was freed from prison Friday, saying they had found proof he led the Islamic terrorist network responsible for the Bali bombings.
Police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse rock-throwing supporters of the white-bearded 65-year-old cleric shortly before his release from a Jakarta prison at around 07:00 (00:00 GMT).
A top security official said Bashir would be charged with the Bali nightclub bombings which killed more than 200 people, and numerous other attacks by the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).
Seconds after he stepped out of Salemba jail after serving a sentence for immigration offences, a detective showed Bashir a warrant for his arrest under an anti-terror law which allows six months' detention without trial.
"Yes, sir," Bashir replied. "There is no problem."
"God's will must be accepted," he told reporters on arrival at national police headquarters in an armoured vehicle.
An appeal court overturned Bashir's 2003 conviction for involvement with JI, but police say they have new evidence that he led the group, which wants to topple Southeast Asian governments and establish a fundamentalist Islamic state.
This is kidnapping
"We will challenge this in court. This is not an arrest, this is kidnapping," said one of Bashir's lawyers, Achmad Khalid, outside the jail.
The lawyer quoted Bashir, who was clad in his customary white Muslim cap and scarf, as saying: "Never surrender."
Another lawyer, Muhammad Assegaf, described the new evidence as "nonsense".
Ansyaad Mbai, who heads the security ministry's anti-terrorism desk, said the charges will relate to "terrorism cases in Indonesia, starting in 2000 until the Bali bombing and the Marriott bombing.
"The culprits are JI and JI is led by him. That is the connection," Mbai said. "Now the police have proof that Abu Bakar Bashir is the leader of JI."
Mbai said it was certain that an indictment would name the Bali nightclub bombings which killed 202 mostly Western vacationers in October 2002.
It would name the Marriott hotel bombing which killed 12 people in Jakarta last August and would also cite the Christmas Eve 2000 church bombings which killed 19 people and other attacks, Mbai said.
Some 600 police in riot gear arrived before dawn outside the prison. At first they tried to negotiate with an estimated 700 furious supporters shouting "Allahu Akbar!" (God is greatest).
Then water cannon began spraying the crowd, who responded with a hail of rocks and bottles. Police picked up some rocks and tossed them back.
"We are ready to die as martyrs!" screamed some protesters and "Salemba will become the second Ambon," in reference to bloody Muslim-Christian battles in the eastern city this week.
- AFP