Alleged Southeast Asian extremist chief Abu Bakar Bashir yesterday accused police of arresting him on orders of US President George W. Bush, and dismissed terror charges against him as "laughable."
In a rambling defense plea read to court, the 66-year-old cleric also attacked the secular government in the world's most populous Muslim nation, accusing Jakarta of ignoring the plight of Muslims killed by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bashir is accused of heading the al-Qaeda-linked terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, and of inciting his followers to take part in the 2002 Bali bombings and the JW Marriott Hotel attack last year in Jakarta. He faces the death penalty if convicted.
The US and Australia have publicly accused Bashir of being a key Southeast Asian terrorist, and have long called on Jakarta to arrest him. He has been in prison since shortly after the Bali bombings.
Yesterday was the second day of proceedings in his trial, which is seen as a test of the willingness of new Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to crack down on high-profile militants.
"The disgusting thing is that [President] Bush has ordered the police to make up these disgusting charges against me," Bashir told the court.
Around 100 of his supporters yelled "God is great" as he spoke.
Bashir -- who has long been a vocal critic of US foreign policy in Muslim lands -- has always declared his innocence. Last year, he was acquitted of related terror crimes.
He told the court that he was in Indonesia when prosecutors claim he made an inflammatory speech at an alleged Jemaah Islamiyah training camp in the Philippines in 2000, and noted that when the Marriott bomb exploded he was in prison.
"All these charges are truly laughable," he said. "The Bush regime also accused Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of having weapons of mass destruction but until today there is no proof they existed. With this lie, he attacked and occupied Iraq and brutally killed Iraqi Muslims and abused them inside prison."
He accused Indonesia of "doing nothing" to protest the killings. "Those with power in this country always take a weak stance against the enemies of Allah: the Bush regime."
Bashir's attorneys were expected to read out their objections to the charges later yesterday, and ask judges to dismiss them. The court will rule on whether to continue the trial next week.
The Oct. 12, 2002, Bali bombings killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. Twelve people died in the Marriott attack while the attack on the embassy killed nine.
Bashir has little active support in Indonesia, where hardline Islam is not popular, but he has received sympathy from some mainstream clerics and government officials, who view him as a victim of foreign intervention in the country's internal affairs.
The Burmese junta has said that detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is “in good health,” a day after her son said he has received little information about the 80-year-old’s condition and fears she could die without him knowing. In an interview in Tokyo earlier this week, Kim Aris said he had not heard from his mother in years and believes she is being held incommunicado in the capital, Naypyidaw. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was detained after a 2021 military coup that ousted her elected civilian government and sparked a civil war. She is serving a
REVENGE: Trump said he had the support of the Syrian government for the strikes, which took place in response to an Islamic State attack on US soldiers last week The US launched large-scale airstrikes on more than 70 targets across Syria, the Pentagon said on Friday, fulfilling US President Donald Trump’s vow to strike back after the killing of two US soldiers. “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote on social media. “Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue.” The US Central Command said that fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery targeted ISIS infrastructure and weapon sites. “All terrorists who are evil enough to attack Americans are hereby warned
Seven wild Asiatic elephants were killed and a calf was injured when a high-speed passenger train collided with a herd crossing the tracks in India’s northeastern state of Assam early yesterday, local authorities said. The train driver spotted the herd of about 100 elephants and used the emergency brakes, but the train still hit some of the animals, Indian Railways spokesman Kapinjal Kishore Sharma told reporters. Five train coaches and the engine derailed following the impact, but there were no human casualties, Sharma said. Veterinarians carried out autopsies on the dead elephants, which were to be buried later in the day. The accident site
‘NO AMNESTY’: Tens of thousands of people joined the rally against a bill that would slash the former president’s prison term; President Lula has said he would veto the bill Tens of thousands of Brazilians on Sunday demonstrated against a bill that advanced in Congress this week that would reduce the time former president Jair Bolsonaro spends behind bars following his sentence of more than 27 years for attempting a coup. Protests took place in the capital, Brasilia, and in other major cities across the nation, including Sao Paulo, Florianopolis, Salvador and Recife. On Copacabana’s boardwalk in Rio de Janeiro, crowds composed of left-wing voters chanted “No amnesty” and “Out with Hugo Motta,” a reference to the speaker of the lower house, which approved the bill on Wednesday last week. It is
RSS