Abu Bakar Ba’asyir Walks Out of Prison Today a Free Man: A Real Setback in the War on Terror in Southeast Asia

By Zachary Abuza

Today, Indonesian authorities will release Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, a 68 year old cleric and the spiritual leader of the Southeast Asian affiliate of Al Qaeda, Jemaah Islamiyah. Ba’asyir had been serving a 25½ month sentence, on a number of charges in a four-year legal saga. His release will have an important impact in counter-terror operations in Southeast Asia. More than just being a media boon for JI and it’s affiliated organizations, it will revitalize organizations that are trying to regroup after the arrests of more than 300 members. Ba'asyir has called for the destruction of the United States, England, Australia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. While he will be under very intensive police and intelligence scrutiny, and is unlikely to be engaged in plotting attacks against Western interests, he will be an important cause that Islamists and jihadists can rally around. Importantly, it will also give JI the first spiritual leader it has had since 2003.

Under pressure from the United States and its ASEAN allies, Indonesian authorities detained Ba’asyir after the October 2002 Bali bombing, and eventually put him on trial. His prosecution was botched, despite damning video testimony from a Malaysian JI member Faiz bin Abu Bakar Bafana that linked Ba’asyir directly to Al Qaeda. In September 2003 the court found Ba’asyir guilty for involvement in a JI plot to overthrow the government but said there was no proof he led the JI network. An appeals court overturned Ba’asyir’s treason conviction but ruled that he had to serve three years for immigration-related offences. In March 2004, the Supreme Court announced that his sentence would be reduced to 18 months; roughly the time already served. On April 30, 2004, as he was released from prison, Ba’asyir was rearrested on retroactive terrorism charges. Though he was visited by several key Muslim leaders, including former Vice President Hamzah Haz, Din Syamsuddin, the head of the second largest Muslim organization in the world, and Hidayat Nur Wahid, the head of the Prosperous Justice Party and now the speaker of the upperhouse of parliament, who have all protested his re-arrest, the police and the state prosecutor’s office were confident that this time they could build up a stronger case against him, using intelligence gleaned from Hambali [though Indonesian officials have still not been given direct access to him] and the testimony of senior JI member Mohammed Nasir bin Abas, who has renounced JI and cooperated with the Indonesian police. As a result of the Constitutional Court’s ruling regarding Anti-Terror Law No. 16, the police announced that they were dropping all charges against Ba’asyir that linked him to the Bali bombing, but that he would still be charged with:

• Planning and inciting acts of terrorism—including the establishment of a training camp on the Philippine island of Mindanao;
• Using his position to influence/persuade others;
• Conspiring to commit acts of terrorism;
• Withholding information about acts of terrorism—specifically the indictment says that he gave permission to key Bali bomber Amrozi to go ahead with the plan.

Ba’asyir pled innocent and was sentenced to a three and a half year term. While he was not linked to any one terrorist incident, the court did find that Ba’asyir was the spiritual chief of JI. He was convicted of being part of an "evil conspiracy."

By comparison, Schapelle Corby, a 27-year old holiday-maker who was allegedly found with 9lbs of cannabis in her luggage, was sentenced by an Indonesian court to 20 years.

Ba’asyir has always asserted his innocence and blamed his incarceration on the heavy-handed diplomatic pressure from Australia and the United States. "I was sure that the detention and the sentence by the district, provincial and the supreme courts was purely an order of Allah's enemies, especially the US and Australia. Repeatedly these two infidel countries intervened into my case," he said.

While the US government has said little about Ba’asyir’s release (the state department spokesman expressed "deep disappointment" on Tuesday), the Australian government, has expressed considerable concern. Nearly half of the 202 people killed in the October 2002 Bali bombings were Australians and in September 2004, JI operatives detonated a truck bomb in front of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta.

The Indonesian Justice Minister, Hamid Awaluddin, said that there would be "no strings attached whatsoever" to Bashir's release, and he would have total freedom of movement. Indeed Ba’asyir has announced his intention of traveling around the archipelago, rallying support for Islamists. According to his spokesman and aide, Muhyidin Djunaedi, he will travel to Central Sullawesi and Ambon island, where JI-linked groups have stepped up sectarian attacks in the past two years, after two years of a tenuous peace.

Ba’asyir is still the head of the Mujihidin Council of Indonesia (known by its Bahasa acronym MMI), an umbrella organization that seeks to unite all organizations, parties and individuals that are committed to transforming Indonesia into an Islamic state governed by sharia. In the past, the MMI received considerable political support from senior figures, including the former Vice President Hamzah Haz and the current speaker of the upper house of parliament Hidayat Nur Wahid. While the MMI is not as strong as it once was, the group is patiently rebuilding its ranks and organization. The director of the MMI is Irfan Awas, the younger brother of a senior JI operative whom the Indonesians, likewise, only gave a token prison sentence to, Abu Jibril. Jibril’s paramilitary organization, the Laskar Mujihidin has been reconstituted since his release in the fall of 2005, and like the MMI was active in Tsunami relief in Aceh. One should expect Ba’asyir’s MMI and affiliated groups like the Laskar Mujihidin to focus their efforts on charitable actions, rather than militant activities.

Ba’asyir is a very charismatic individual, and there will be considerable media coverage upon his release. His appearances tend to bring out large numbers of militant youth. His release will certainly inspire the disparate affiliated organizations and cells of JI. Since Abu Rusdan’s arrest in 2003, JI has been without an amir, or spiritual leader, so his release is all the more significant. Habib Rizieq, the head of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), a hard-line vigilante group that has been involved in violent attacks on night-spots but also on Muslim moderates and sects such as the Ahmadiyah, agreed: "He will help boost the spirit of the faithful." Rizieq will be among many Islamists who will greet Ba'asyir on his release.

Ba’asyir will return to his madrassah, the Al Mukmin School, in Solo, Central Java. Though the school’s alumni are a who’s who of jihadists and terrorist in Southeast Asia, the Indonesian government refuses to shut it down.

Ba’asyir was designated by the US Department of the Treasury on 13 April 2006. His colleague Abu Jibril was designated in 2002. Technically it is illegal for Ba’asyir or any organization connected to him to raise money. The Indonesian government has refused to enforce this or UN designations, and JI militants continue to fund raise and organize. Indonesia, likewise, has still failed to criminalize JI. Mere membership is not a crime and Indonesian authorities have shown a willingness to target only those that are directly linked to a terrorist act. Last week, the Indonesian parliament and the government agreed to ammend a 1985 freedom of assembly law to allow them to disband groups deemed to be a threat to public order, but they are unlikely to act on JI. Ba'asyir is also proscribed under the UN's 1267 list, which prohibits him from travelling outside of Indonesia (which he was unlikely to do anyway- as he is far safer in Indonesia) and may deter at least some foreign donors from contributing to his network.