JAKARTA, 16 October 2004 — Indonesian prosecutors yesterday said they had formally charged militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir with involvement in a suicide bombing last year at Jakarta’s JW Marriott hotel in which 12 people died.
South Jakarta district court official Yunda Hasbi said the trial was expected to begin in about two weeks. If found guilty, Bashir could face the death penalty under Indonesia’s tough anti-terrorism laws.
Prosecutors are expected to focus on his alleged leadership of Jemaah Islamiah, an Al-Qaeda-linked extremist group authorities say is behind the Marriott and other attacks, including the October 2002 Bali bombings.
The 65-page charge sheet accuses the white-bearded Bashir, 66, of planning or inciting others to terrorism or helping them carry out an “explosion which endangered or cost the lives of others.”
The charges were originally filed in August, but were only handed over to the court yesterday.
Prosecutors have compiled a case file containing testimony from 74 witnesses, accusing him of providing assistance to terrorists and withholding information about terrorist acts.
Hasbi told reporters that Bashir was “implicated in the Marriott bombing” and other strikes, but not the Bali attacks in which 202 people died.
The August 2003 suicide car bombing at the US-franchised Marriott hotel in Jakarta killed 11 Indonesians and a Dutch banker.
Bashir, who has admiringly described Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden as a “true Muslim fighter” but denied any links to terrorism, said he had yet to be officially informed of the charges against him.
