Indonesia acquits cleric of terror links

A COURT acquitted a Muslim cleric accused of heading an al-Qaida-linked Asian terror group and plotting to overthrow the government, giving a surprise verdict in a case seen as a test of Indonesia's willingness to fight terror.

The ruling was greeted by joyous cheers from hundreds of supporters of Abu Bakar Bashir, who was alleged to be the spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah, a terror network blamed for a string of bombings in Indonesia and the Philippines.

"There is not enough evidence to prove that the defendant ... led and organised (a conspiracy) to overthrow the government," said Judge Muhammad Saleh, who ordered Bashir to be set free.

Before the verdict, Bashir, 65, had urged his supporters to remain calm and said that anyone inciting violence was an "American provocateur".

"Believe this, no matter how many years the judges give me, we will win. As long as we defend God's laws ... we will win," he said.

Many of the hundreds of supporters wore traditional white robes or combat fatigues. Several hundred policemen, some armed with automatic rifles, stood guard outside the building. Four water-cannon trucks were parked nearby.

Bashir, who ran a religious boarding school in Central Java, was arrested in the immediate aftermath of the October 12 Bali bombings which killed 202 people, mostly foreigners. He has not been charged with involvement in that attack or the August 5 bombing of Jakarta's JW Marriott Hotel which killed 12 people.

But prosecutors say that under his leadership, Jemaah Islamiyah plotted to kill President Megawati Sukarnoputri with the wider aim of establishing an Islamic state.

Bashir also has been charged in a series of church blasts throughout Indonesia on Christmas Eve 2000 which killed 19 people.

Prosecutors say those attacks were to destabilise the country of 210 million people, mostly Muslims, with the aim of overthrowing its secular government. The verdict was being watched as a test of Indonesia's commitment to fighting Muslim militancy.

The trial is politically sensitive for Ms Megawati, whose coalition government depends on the support of moderate Muslim parties.

Representatives of these parties, including her own vice president, Hamzah Haz, have in the past expressed support for Bashir who maintains that Jemaah Islamiyah does not even exist and says that he has been framed by the intelligence services of the United States and Israel.

Analysts say that in contrast to the dozens of obscure radicals who carried out the attack in Bali where a tribunal already has delivered its first death sentence Bashir remains influential in religious circles in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country. Prosecutors had asked the court to sentence Bashir to 15 years in jail, instead of demanding the maximum life sentence.

"This case is being seen as a litmus test as to whether the Indonesian government is getting serious in cracking down on (Muslim militants)," said Ken Conboy, country manager for Risk Management Advisory, a Jakarta-based security consultancy. In Canberra, the Australian government warned its citizens in Indonesia to "exercise extreme caution" and urged Australians to defer all nonessential travel to Indonesia, citing fears of further attacks.