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.
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