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| Sunday, 7 August 2005 |
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SC rejects Bashir's appeal JAKARTA, Aug 6 (AFP) - Indonesia's supreme court has rejected a final appeal by militant Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir to overturn a 30-month sentence for his role in instigating the Bali bombings, his lawyer said Saturday. "We have not received an official letter of the ruling from the supreme court but we did receive a verbal confirmation," Muhammad Assegaf told AFP. A Jakarta court in March sentenced Bashir for his involvement in a criminal conspiracy that led to the October 2002 Bali bombings, in which 202 people, mostly tourists, were killed, but cleared him of more serious charges of planning terrorist attacks. In May the Jakarta High Court upheld the ruling against Bashir, whom some foreign governments accuse of being the spiritual leader of a Southeast Asian extremist group blamed for a series of deadly attacks in recent years. Assegaf said the 66-year-old cleric "flatly rejected" the supreme court ruling and deemed it an "act of injustice". "Ustad's (teacher) stance is clear. He said he would not sign any paper confirming the ruling and saw it as an intervention by foreign countries on Indonesia's legal system," Assegaf said. "He has been oppressed from the start by this government or the previous one. He said he would not seek a presidential pardon," the lawyer said. No immediate confirmation from the supreme court was available. |
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