Posted on 10/16/2004 7:43:45 AM PDT by Valin
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has been charged with involvement in the nightclub bombings in the holiday island of Bali that killed 202 people, an official said on Saturday. "He is charged for having a part in the Bali incident," state prosecutor Andi Herman told Reuters.
Bashir was charged under the criminal law Number 187 for his involvement in the Bali bombing, Herman said, the maximum penalty under which law is life sentence.
The accused leader of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah (JI) militant network was charged on Friday with involvement in a suicide bombing attack at the U.S-run J.W.Marriott hotel in Jakarta in 2003.
Herman said the charges against Bashir over the Marriott bombing were brought under the tough anti-terror law Number 15, which carries death penalty.
A new trial against Bashir could start within two weeks after prosecutors filed terrorism charges against him on Friday.
Bashir, who denies any links with JI or terrorism, was first arrested days after the Bali blasts amid suspicions he led JI and had ties to violent acts.
However, following a trial using the ordinary criminal code, the court said there was not enough evidence to prove Bashir led the group, and ultimately only convictions related to immigration violations were upheld in appeals courts.
After Bashir had served time on those convictions, Indonesian police detained Bashir under the anti-terror laws.
JI has been blamed not just for attacks in Indonesia, the world's fourth-most populous country, but for planned and actual violence throughout the region.
A car bomb outside Australia's embassy in Jakarta last month, which killed nine, is the latest attack intelligence experts blame on the group.
I am in Jakarta every quarter, and know the people there live in fear, which they try their best to hide.
Kill terrorists.
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