ICC Note: Several people involved in the Bali bombing have been let off the hook, despite the evidence that they were in fact guilty, while 3 Christians accused of being the masterminds behind the poso conflict had no evidence against them, yet they were beaten and then executed.
Indonesia overturns Bashir’s conviction
By NINIEK KARMINI, Associated Press Writer
12/21/06 Indonesia (Associated Press) Indonesia overturned a terror conviction Thursday against the militant Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who served 2 1/2 years for conspiracy in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed more than 200 people.
Bashir, 69, who was released from prison in June, has long claimed that the government in the world’s most populous Muslim nation succumbed to pressure from the West when it arrested him soon after the Bali attacks.
“Thank God the Supreme Court has finally revealed the final truth,” he said by telephone from Bashir’s hometown on Java island. “He is praying now to say thanks to God that his prayers have been accepted.”
Thursday’s ruling was in response to an appeal filed during Bashir’s imprisonment.
The 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, were the first in a string of attacks in Indonesia targeting Western interests, with 2003 and 2004 blasts at the Australian Embassy and the J.W. Marriott Hotel and triple suicide bombings on Bali last year.
Bashir has always denied any wrongdoing, but admits having known several Southeast Asian militants in the 1980s and 1990s that went to Afghanistan and trained there at al-Qaida-run camps.
Since his release, he has preached in towns across the country, espousing fiercely anti-American and anti-Jewish views and promoting his campaign to transform Indonesia ‘s secular state into an Islamic one.
