A group of Basyir’s supporters demonstrated outside his prison Thursday dem,anding his release

By Kazi Mahmood, IOL Southeast Asia correspondent

KUALA LUMPUR , April 15 (IslamOnline.net) – The United States is seeking to have Abu Bakar Basyir, the 65 year old Muslim leader of the Mujahideen Council of Indonesia (MMI), extradited to Guantanamo detention camp, a MMI member told IslamOnline.net on Thursday, April 15.

"The U.S. and Australian ambassadors to Indonesia have urged the police to extradite Abu Bakar Basyir to Cuba and this will take effect as from next month," said Sheikh Ahmad.

Reports on sending the aged Muslim leader to the X-Ray camp, where the U.S. has been detaining hundreds of terror suspects for years without trial, have made headlines Thursday in several newspapers in Indonesia , particularly in Jakarta .

Local newspapers in Indonesian language said the news was first revealed by Habib Hussein Al Habsy, leader of the Ikhwanul Muslimin Indonesia (IMI), who told the press he had valid information to that end.

Al Habsy, who is under house arrest in Salemba, said the U.S. and Australian ambassadors, AS Ralph L Boyce and David Ritchie respectively, had already discussed the issue with Indonesian police Chief General Da'i Bachtiar.

Da'i Bachtiar had repudiated reports on the possibility of sending Basyir to Guantanamo .

However, the MMI confirmed the story with IOL, saying Basyir would have been sent to Guantanamo in early March but a recent court decision in his favor had doused the enthusiasm of the U.S. and Australia .

Jakarta High Court quashed on Monday, December 1, a treason conviction against Baysir and curtailed an earlier imprisonment term against him to three instead of four years.

On March 9, 2004 , the jail term was further slashed down to 18 months.

Sheikh Ahmad asserted that the government will have a tough time linking Basyir to the Bali bombing after police failure to tie him to 2001 church bombings.

The MMI member recalled received confirmation on Wednesday, April 14, that Basyir’s term in jail would officially end on April 30 and that the prison authorities do not have any reasons to keep the frail and ailing leader in jail.

"Nevertheless, the U.S. and the Australians as well as the Singaporean authorities are pressing the Indonesian government as well as the police not to release Abu Bakar and to send him off to Cuba," Sheikh Ahmad stressed.

Both the American and Australian embassies in Jakarta refused to comment on reports that the ambassadors were involved in secret talks to push for Basyir’s extradition.

Al Habsy, known for his anti-American vocalism, and the MMI did not clarify where or when the ambassadors met with the police chief.

Shame

"If this happens, it will be such a shame for Indonesia as it will not only violate the rights of Abu Bakar Basyir, but it will also prove that Indonesia can’t stand on its own, that others have a say in our internal affairs," said Al Habsy to a local journalist working for the Detik news agency.

Another Islamic group called the Masjid also denounced the possible extradition of Basyir to the U.S. , saying that it will be a shameful decision by Megawati’s government.

The group told Detik that Muslims in Indonesia will not allow such a thing to happen and this would cause a lot of tremors in the largest Muslim nation on earth.

A group of Basyir’s supporters on Thursday demonstrated outside the prison where the MMI leader is being held.

They carried banners branding the U.S. as the real "terrorist" and not Basyir as Washington claims.

The demonstrators said the MMI leader should be freed since there was proof of his alleged involvement in terrorist activities.

Basyir was arrested a month after the Bali bombing after intense pressure from the U.S. and Singapore .