Head of extremist Islamic group allows questions but no detention

THE ailing spiritual leader of an extremist Islamic organisation accused of involvement in the Bali nightclub bombings said yesterday he would submit to questioning but resist efforts to detain him.

Abu Bakar Bashir was arrested for a 2000 church bombing spree after he checked into a hospital in his home town of Solo with breathing problems two weeks ago.

Doctors said he could be released as early as Monday.

“I will reject all efforts to detain me, to the extent it is in my capabilities to do so,” Bashir said from his hospital bed.

“I will respect the summons and will go to questioning. But my detainment is (illegal),” he said.

“The terrorist governments of America and its allies have always wanted me detained.”

Police said they were waiting for the Muslim cleric to be released from hospital before taking him into custody and questioning him about his alleged links to Jemaah Islamiyah, a regional

Islamic group believed to be seeking a Muslim super-state in South-east Asia and allied to al Qaida.

The group is suspected of the Bali nightclub bombing on October 12 that killed almost 200 people.

Bashir denies any link to Jemaah

Islamiyah, and claims that such an

organisation does not exist.

Bashir, 64, was not arrested for the Bali bombings but has been charged with ordering the church bombings that killed 19 people and plotting the assassination of President Megawati Sukarnoputri.