Bashir is accused of treason and violations of immigration laws

By IOL Southeast Asia Correspondent

KUALA LUMPUR, April 15 (IslamOnline.net) - The jailed Islamic leader Abu Bakar Bashir has been charged with treason and violations of immigration laws, and now faces a lengthy jail sentence if he is found guilty, news sources in Jakarta said on Tuesday, April 15, 2003.

Prosecutors submitted the dossiers related to Bashir to the Central Jakarta District Court on Monday, indicating that his case may be opened soon and could be heard in the courts within weeks.

Treason carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail, while immigration violations are punishable with six years in jail.

"We hope the court can form a team of judges as soon as possible to start the trial," said prosecutor Hasan Madani, who submitted the dossiers Monday, reported Antara news agency.

Usually, it takes between two weeks to four weeks for a court to select the judges who will then decide on when the case would be brought to court for hearing.

Bashir, founder and leader of the Ngruki School in Solo, Central Java and the alleged spiritual leader of Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), is accused of plotting a string of bombings in Indonesia as part of a campaign to topple the government and set up an Islamic state.

His lawyers, however, stressed that they do not see any links between Bashir and the string of bombings in Indonesia as well as any reason to link the Islamic leader to attempts of toppling the regime.

But, The police retorted in the course of the inquiry surrounding the arrest of the Islamic leader that they had sufficient proof to indict the 64 year old Islamic scholar.

Bashir was high on a list of suspected terrorist forwarded by the US to Malaysia and Indonesia after the September 11, 2001 attacks on US soil. He was considered to be as dangerous as or even more dangerous than Osama Bin Laden by FBI sources.

Sources close to Bashir told IslamOnline.net that it will be difficult for the police to prove the guilt of the Islamic leader and that those who believe in his innocence would not be surprised if such proofs were based on “hearsay” evidence or the words of “some paid henchmen of the CIA,”

The source also added that Bashir was innocent, has been jailed without evidence and is not being brought to court without concrete proof of his involvement in terrorism.

Police in Indonesia failed to link Bashir to the Bali bombing of October 12^th last year that killed more than 200 people and which lead to the arrest of the Muslim scholar.

Supporters of the Islamic leader argued that the timing of the trial of Bashir was obviously an attempt by the Indonesian government to please the U.S.

“The U.S. is angered at the Indonesian government’s stance over the Iraq war, it wanted the Indonesians to support the freedom of Iraq, now Jakarta is dangling Bashir at the face of the Bush administration,” said a member of the Bashir’s group.

The latter added that the Islamic leader is being used as a “reminder to the U.S. that Indonesia is a friend in the war against terrorism, though it had to be critical of the Iraq war,”

The police and prosecutors are convinced though that Bashir, an old man who teaches Islamic studies at his school and who preaches in mosques around Asia, is involved in the Christmas Eve bombings targeting churches and priests, killing 19 people in Jakarta and other cities across Indonesia.

Prosecutors say Bashir gave his blessing to the bombings and approved of plans to bomb American interests in Singapore in what is known as “program C”.

Singapore foiled that bombing plot with the arrest of a large number of JI suspects. Bashir rejects any knowledge of the JI, saying such an organization did not even exist.

The charges, along with thousands of pages of evidence, were handed over in preparation for a trial.

"The defendant is the leader and organizer of treason with the intention of toppling the government and fulfilling his intention of setting up the Islamic State of Indonesia," the charge read.

It is believed that Bashir and Abdullah Sungkar, who has died of natural causes, set up JI in the 1990s with Sungkar as leader and Bashir as his deputy.

The prosecutors also charged Bashir with making false documents to show he was a resident of the Java town of Ngruki.

He was also accused of making a false affidavit about his whereabouts from 1985 to 1999 and with failing to carry out his obligations as a foreigner in Indonesia.

Bashir self exiled to Malaysia in 1985 after serving a three-year-jail term for subversion but never notified the Indonesian embassy there of his presence - a necessary requirement if he wished to retain his Indonesian citizenship.

He returned to Indonesia after the fall of President Soeharto in 1998.

Bashir, who was detained last October, was not present in court. He has denied any links to terrorism but has described al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as "a true Muslim fighter".