Alleged al-Qaida chief on trial for terrorism

The Indonesian cleric accused of heading the al-Qaida-linked terror group behind the 2002 Bali bombings proclaimed his innocence as he went on trial today, while prosecutors alleged he spurred followers in “the waging of war” against America and its allies.

About 70 supporters of Abu Bakar Bashir shouted “God is great” when the 66-year-old cleric arrived at court wearing white Islamic robes and prayer cap and flanked by armed anti-terror police. It was the second time the frail, white-haired cleric has faced terror charges in two years.

Foreign governments accuse Bashir of being a key South-East Asian terror leader, and his trial is seen as a key test of the willingness of Indonesia’s secular government to prosecute high-profile militants.

It began eight days after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono took office in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, promising to battle terrorism.

Bashir appeared before a court set up in a large auditorium in the Agriculture Ministry because of the high number of expected observers. The trial is expected to last about five months.

“I am convinced I am innocent. The charges are baseless,” a relaxed Bashir said before the trial began. “All those people who do not agree with the interests of George Bush are called terrorists.”

Prosecutors read out a 65-page indictment accusing Bashir of heading Jemaah Islamiyah, a South-East Asian network blamed for a series of failed plots and deadly attacks in the region, including the Bali attack and the August 5 suicide attack on the Marriott hotel in Jakarta.

The October 12, 2002, Bali bombings killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists, including 88 Australians. Twelve people died in the August 5 Marriott suicide attack.

The primary charge against Bashir under the country’s anti-terror law accuses him of planning the attack on the Marriott building, and inciting his followers to carry it out.

Prosecutor Salman Maryadi accused Bashir of passing on a fatwa from Osama bin Laden to Jemaah Islamiyah members at a camp in the Southern Philippines in 2000 that “permitted the waging of war against, and the killing of, Americans and their allies”.

“Their blood is halal (legal according to Islam), let alone their wealth,” he is alleged to have told his followers.

A subsidiary charge under the criminal code accuses Bashir of “conspiring” in the Bali attacks. The indictment alleges Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, who would later be convicted along with 35 other militants in the nightclub bombings, visited Bashir three months before the attacks to ask for his blessing.

Bashir faces the death penalty if found guilty in the Marriott attack, or a long prison term if convicted of the Bali-related charges.

“You’re lying. This is all made up,” one of his supporters shouted after prosecutors finished stating their case. Others loudly jeered the prosecutors.

Bashir was not required to make a plea in today’s hearing, but he urged the judges and prosecutors to be wary of the influence of the United States and Australia, which he called “the enemies of God”.

The trial was adjourned until November 4, when attorneys will present their initial objections to the indictment.

Last year, Bashir was cleared of charges he headed Jemaah Islamiyah and involvement in a series of church bombings. The verdict was criticised by the United States and Australia, which both have publicly called on Jakarta to put him on trial again.

Bashir has little active support in Indonesia, where hard-line Islam is not popular, but he has received sympathy from some mainstream clerics and government officials, who view him as a victim of foreign intervention in the country’s internal affairs.

Charges under the anti-terror law could not be brought against Bashir in the Bali bombings because Indonesia’s highest court ruled the statute could not be used retroactively. The law was passed soon after the Bali attacks.

Bashir has been in prison since shortly after the Bali bombings.

He was cleared of the terror charges but convicted of immigration violations at a 2003 trial. He was re-arrested after completing his sentence in April, and has been detained ever since.

Bashir has long campaigned for the introduction of Islamic law in secular Indonesia. He fled to Malaysia in the 1980s to avoid arrest by Suharto, who brutally repressed Islamist movements.

Bashir returned to Indonesia in 1998 after Suharto’s downfall and began teaching at a religious school that was attended by many of the Bali and Marriott bombers.