Prosecutors suffered another setback yesterday in the trial of alleged terror chief Abu Bakar Bashir when three witnesses failed to link the radical cleric with the deadly Bali bombings last year.
Prosecutors had hoped the three witnesses -- who are relatives or friends of Bali bombing suspects -- would testify about Bashir's role in the Oct. 12 blasts that killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists.
The blasts have been blamed on the al-Qaeda linked terror group Jemaah Islamiyah. Bashir is believed to be the group's spiritual head.
But the witnesses told the court they only knew Bashir from speeches he gave, including one at a graduation ceremony in 2000.
"If prosecutors are saying that I am friendly with Abu Bakar Bashir, I say I do not know him and I am not friendly with him," said Sumarno, the cousin of Bali bombing suspect Amrozi bin Nurhasyim.
The other witnesses claimed they knew Bashir from "newspapers and TV only."
Bashir is charged with treason, allegedly masterminding a series of church bombings in 2000 and attempting to destabilize the government. He is also charged with falsifying his identity card.
If convicted, he could be sentenced to death.
Bashir has not been charged over the Bali bombings -- the worst terror attack since Sept. 11, 2001 -- but investigators have suggested he had a role in the blasts.
During the testimony, about 50 Bashir supporters booed prosecutors and chanted "Allahu akbar!" or "God is great!"
Bashir's trial is one of a series of high-profile court cases against Islamic militants in the world's most populous Muslim country. There is intense international pressure for convictions in the wake of the Bali attack -- though Indonesia's weak and corrupt legal system has often failed to mete out justice.
Two weeks ago, four Bali bombing suspects testified that they believed Bashir was the head of Jemaah Islamiyah, but none specifically linked him to any violence.
A week earlier, two men convicted in the bombing of a shopping mall in 2000 denied that Bashir had anything to do with the blast.
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