Indonesia's police chief yesterday officially declared militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir a criminal suspect, allowing authorities to keep him in jail when his current period of detention ends later his month.
The move will likely please Washington, which has urged Jakarta not to release Bashir, saying he is a leader of the regional al-Qaeda linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror group.
"Principally, we have declared ... Abu Bakar Bashir a suspect and we have sent the order to prosecutors to initiate his interrogation,'' General Dai Bachtiar told reporters in Jakarta.
Bachtiar did not say what law Bashir was suspected of violating, but he said the investigation had "links with testimonies from witnesses from Malaysia and Singapore."
Indonesia's SCTV network on Thursday night broadcast an interview in which Mohammed Nasir Abbas, a suspected Malaysian militant currently detained in Jakarta, alleged Bashir was a senior Jemaah Islamiyah figure.
It was unclear whether the new suspicions against Bashir originated from Abbas' allegations. However, an intelligence official said that a letter found last year, signed by Nasir, referred to Bashir as the leader of Jemaah Islamiyah.
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
‘TROUBLING’: The firing of Phelan, who was an adviser to a nonprofit that supported the defense of Taiwan, was another example of ‘dysfunction’ under Trump, a US senator said US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been fired, a US official and a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in another wartime shakeup at the Pentagon coming just weeks after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ousted the Army’s top general. The Pentagon announced his departure in a brief statement, saying he was leaving the administration “effective immediately,” but it did not provide a reason or say whether it was his decision to go. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Phelan was dismissed in part because he was moving too slowly to implement reforms to
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