Abu Bakar Bashir

From Free net encyclopedia

Abu Bakar Bashir (also Abubakar Ba'asyir) alias Abdus Somad (born August 1938) is an Indonesian Muslim cleric and leader of the Indonesian Mujahedeen Council (MMI), who intelligence agencies claim is the spiritual head of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), and has links with al-Qaeda. Bashir denies he has anything to do with Jemaah Islamiyah or terrorism. He is in poor health.

Bashir was arrested for suspected involvement in the 2002 Bali terrorist bombing. On April 14, 2003, he was formally charged by the Indonesian government with treason, immigration violations, and providing false documents and statements to the Indonesian police. The charges are mainly related to the series of bombings against Christian churches on Christmas Eve, 2000, which killed 18 people.

In the Indonesian court, he was found not guilty for treason due to a lack of evidence, but was found guilty on immigration charges. He was sentenced to three years in prison, but the sentence was subsequently reduced to 20 months. If more evidence is found on his involvement, he may be tried again for treason.

On October 15, 2004, he was arrested by the Indonesian authorities and charged with involvement in a bomb attack on the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta on August 5, 2003, which killed 14 people. Secondary charges in the same indictment accuse him of involvement in the Bali bombing, the first time he has faced charges in relation to that attack.

On March 3 2005, Bashir was found guilty of conspiracy over the 2002 attacks, but was found not guilty of the charges surrounding the 2003 bomb. He was sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment.

On 17 August 2005, as part of the tradition of remissions for Indonesia's Independence Day, Bashir's jail term was cut by 4 months and 15 days.

He was also linked with bomb attack on Borobudur temple in 1985 but managed to escape trial by seeking asylum in Malaysia (this explain the immigration charges against him above).

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