JAKARTA, Indonesia – A radical Islamic cleric often portrayed as an important operative for al-Qaeda in Southeast Asia walked out of prison this morning after serving just over a year for criminal conspiracy, his lawyers and Indonesian officials said.
U.S. officials, who had long pressed Indonesia to prosecute Abu Bakar Bashir, expressed disappointment over his release, as did officials in Australia, which lost 88 citizens in the bombings of two Bali nightclubs that killed 202 people in October 2002.
A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta said yesterday that the United States was “deeply disappointed” that Bashir, 67, had been sentenced to only 30 months in prison after a court found him guilty in March 2005 of a “sinister conspiracy” in connection with the bombings but acquitted him of seven terrorism charges.
The judges said then that Bashir “knew the perpetrators” and that his words might have encouraged them.
The actual time served was reduced to just over a year, because Bashir was given credit for previous time served and for good behavior.
U.S. and Australian officials contended that Bashir, the spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah group, had a direct role in the bombings of the Bali nightclubs and the August 2003 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta that killed 12 people.
Bashir was acquitted of terrorism charges at a 2003 trial, but was convicted on a passport violation. After serving that sentence, he was released, but then faced new charges.
The strongest evidence linking Bashir to the Bali terrorist attacks was never heard by the five-judge panel because the Bush administration did not allow Indonesia to interview two senior al-Qaeda operatives who are in the hands of the CIA.
Most of the military leaders of Jemaah Islamiyah have been arrested or killed. The government has prosecuted and imposed harsh sentences, including death, on many of the people involved in the major terrorist attacks in Indonesia in the past four years.
