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| Sunday, 16 April 2006 |
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Indonesian terror leader dismisses U.S. allegation JAKARTA, April 15 (AP) Supporters of an imprisoned Indonesian cleric designated a terrorist leader by the U.S. Treasury department dismissed the allegation as a "dirty trick" aimed at thwarting his planned release in June. The department declared on Thursday that any bank accounts or other financial assets of Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged spiritual leader of the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist group, found in the United States would be frozen. Similar designations were given to three other suspected members of Jemaah Islamiyah, which is blamed in a string of deadly attacks in Indonesia including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people. Americans are also forbidden from doing business with those named. One of Bashir's lawyers, Munarman, said the designation was a ploy. "Bashir has got no bank accounts anywhere so the whole thing is a fantasy," Munarman, who goes by a single name, told The Associated Press on Friday. "This is just a new tactic to trap him." Bashir, who has consistently denied any illegal activity and says Jemaah Islamiyah does not exist, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in jail in 2005 for inciting others to carry out the Bali bombings, whose victims were mostly foreign tourists. The 69-year-old cleric is due for release in June after his sentence was reduced by 4 1/2 months as part of an amnesty granted to prisoners on Indonesia's Independence Day. Fauzan Al-Ansory, a close aide of Bashir who often speaks on his behalf, said he "strongly protested this malicious slander. "This move is a dirty trick aimed at making up reasons for (his) re-arrest later," Al-Ansory said. One of the others designated a terrorist Thursday is Rusman Gunawan, the younger brother of Jemaah Islamiyah leader Riduan Isamudin, or Hambali. Hambali was considered a key al-Qaida operative until his capture in 2003. Rusman was sentenced in 2004 to four years in prison for helping to finance the 2003 bombing of the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta, an attack blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah. In its designation, the treasury alleged Bashir was Jemaah Islamiyah's "top leader" and had ordered or authorized a string of attacks or foiled plots in Southeast Asia since 2000. It did not release any evidence. Five other Indonesians have been designated terrorists by the U.S. Treasury Department since 2003. One of them, Abu Jibril, is a free man and regularly preaches fiery sermons at mosques around the country. Bashir was first arrested in 2002 shortly after the Bali bombings. In the trial that followed, he was acquitted of heading Jemaah Islamiyah, but sentenced to 18-months in prison for minor immigration violations. As his release date approached, U.S. and Australian officials both publicly called on Indonesia not to free him, saying he was a key terrorist leader. Denying they were acting on the orders of foreigners, police arrested Bashir as he left jail in 2003 and charged him with several terror crimes based on new evidence. But judges only convicted him over the Bali attacks. Indonesia's top-anti terror detective said last month that police had no plans to investigate Bashir further. Before the Bali blasts, Bashir was chiefly known for his campaign to
install an Islamic-based government in Indonesia and his criticism of U.S.
policy toward Muslim countries. He has little active support in Indonesia,
but some mainstream clerics and government officials sympathize with him,
saying he is a victim of foreign meddling. |
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