Plans to free a radical cleric linked to deadly Bali bombings are under review, Indonesia has said, after the surprise decision drew sharp criticism.
Abu Bakar Bashir was once synonymous with militant Islam in Indonesia and was tied to the terror network behind the 2002 attacks that killed more than 200 people, mostly foreign tourists.
Last week, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said he had given the green light for the early release of Bashir — believed to have been a key figure in militant group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).
Photo: AP
The 80-year-old preacher is “old and sick,” Widodo said.
The plan was slammed at home and abroad, with objections across Indonesian social media and from Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who said that Bashir is still a threat.
Dozens of Australians were killed in the Bali attacks.
In an apparent backtrack on Monday, Indonesian Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Wiranto said that the president had ordered a “thorough and comprehensive study” of Bashir’s release.
“We can’t act hastily or spontaneously,” he told reporters, without saying when a final decision would be made.
Bashir in 2011 was sentenced to 15 years in jail for helping fund a paramilitary group training in Aceh Province.
The preacher was previously jailed over the Bali bombings, but that conviction was quashed on appeal. He has repeatedly denied involvement in terror attacks.
Bashir’s lawyer Achmad Michdan questioned the apparent official change of heart.
“We have no problem with [the review], but people might wonder why would they announce it in the first place,” Michdan said.
Widodo had cited “humanitarian reasons” for agreeing to the release, sparking a torrent of criticism on Indonesian social media.
“This whole story is stupid beyond belief,” a Twitter user wrote. “[Bashir] murdered hundreds of people. They don’t get to be with their families, but he does?”
The bombings prompted Jakarta to improve counter-terror cooperation with the US and Australia.
“We have been very clear about the need to ensure that, as part of our joint counter-terrorism efforts ... that Abu Bakar Bashir would not be in any position ... to influence or incite anything,” Morrison was quoted as saying.
Al-Qaeda-linked JI was founded by a handful of exiled Indonesian militants in Malaysia in the 1980s and grew to include cells across Southeast Asia.
As well as the 2002 Bali bombings, the group was blamed for a 2003 car bombing at the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta and a suicide car bombing the following year outside the Australian embassy.
An anti-terror crackdown weakened some of Indonesia’s most dangerous networks, including JI.
Several militants convicted over their involvement in the Bali bombings have been executed, while two others, including Malaysian Noordin Mohammed Top, were killed in police raids in 2009 and 2010.
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