JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) – A front-line cleric who inspired the Bali bombings and other attacks was released from an Indonesian prison on Friday after completing his sentence for funding the formation of Islamic militants.
Police said they will monitor the activities of Abu Bakar Bashir, who is 82 years old and in distress. His son said Bashir will avoid activities outside his home due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The slender, white-bearded Bashir, an Indonesian of Yemeni descent, was the spiritual leader of the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah network behind the 2002 bombings on the tourist island of Bali that killed 202 people, most foreign tourists, including 88 Australians. , leaving a deep scar in that country.
Bashir was jailed in 2011 for his links to a religiously conservative militant training camp in Aceh province. He was convicted of funding the military-style camp to train Islamic militants and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
He received a total of 55 months of sentence reductions, which are often granted to inmates at major parties, said Rika Aprianti, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department’s corrections department.
“He is released when his sentence ends,” Aprianti said.
Bashir, dressed in a robe and white mask, was escorted by the National Police anti-terrorist squadron, known as Densus 88, when he was released in the morning from Gunung Sindur prison in the western city of Bogor. of Java, Bashir’s son Abdul Rohim told The Associated Press.
He said the family, lawyers and a medical team accompanied Bashir to his home at the Islamic boarding school he co-founded in the city of Solo, about 540 kilometers (335 miles) east of the capital, Jakarta.
Rohim said the family had agreed with authorities not to hold any celebration to welcome Bashir.
“I just want to keep my father out of the crowds during the coronavirus pandemic,” Rohim said. “He will just rest and reunite with his family until the outbreak is over. There will be no other activities for him for sure. ”
School spokesman Endro Sudarsono said he did not hold any welcoming events because “we have agreed with the authorities to keep a large crowd to stop the spread of the coronavirus.”
Police removed five large welcome banners and dozens of smaller banners, saying they would attract people, and replaced them with a single banner announcing there would be no celebrations.
National police spokesman Ahmad Ramadhan said police would oversee Bashir’s activities.
In Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison described Bashir’s release as “intestinal devastation” and said the government had long called for harsher sentences against those behind the bombings.
“Decisions on sentencing … as we know, are issues for the Indonesian justice system and we must respect the decisions they make,” Morrison said Friday.
He said that while Bashir’s release was consistent with the Indonesian justice system, “This does not make it easy for any Australian to accept that … ultimately, those responsible for the murder of Australians would now be free. “Sometimes it’s not a fair world. And that’s one of the hardest things to deal with.”
Indonesian authorities had struggled to prove Bashir’s involvement in the Bali bombings and fought multiple battles to maintain convictions for other charges. Prosecutors were unable to prove a number of allegations related to terrorism, a conviction for treason was overturned and the sentence for a conviction for forgery was considered.
When he was released from prison in 2004, he was arrested and charged again with directing Jemaah Islamiyah, in addition to giving his blessing to the Bali bombings. A court authorized him to lead the group, but sentenced him to 30 months for conspiracy in the bombings.
After his release in 2006, he resumed teaching at Al-Mukmin Boarding School which he co-founded in 1972 and traveled the country giving sermons of fire.
The school became a militant production line under the influence of Bashir, radicalizing a generation of students. Subsequently, many terrorized Indonesia with bombings and attacks with the aim of provoking an Islamic caliphate and destroyed the country’s reputation for tolerance.
In speeches, Bashir said al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and three militants sentenced to death for the Bali bombings were not terrorists but “soldiers of Allah’s army.”
A court banned Jemaah Islamiyah in 2008, and the group was weakened by sustained crackdown on Indonesian counterterrorism police militants with US and Australian support.
A raid on the camp that Bashir helped fund in 2010 dealt a crushing blow to radical networks in Indonesia and forced changes in the mission of Islamic extremists. Instead of targeting Western people and symbols, the militants targeted Indonesians who considered themselves “infidels,” such as police, counterterrorism squadrons, lawmakers, and others who saw themselves as obstacles to transforming the country. secular country in an Islamic state governed by Shariah law. More recently, militants have been inspired by the Islamic State group’s attacks abroad.
Sidney Jones, director of the Jakarta Institute for Conflict Policy Analysis, which closely monitors groups of Muslim militants in Southeast Asia, said Bashir’s release is unlikely to increase the risk of terrorism in Indonesia because many potential current terrorists are too young to be reminded of the Jemaah Islamiyah bombing campaign that took place while Bashir was its leader.
“Extremist cells are much more fractured than when Bashir went to prison,” he said, adding that Bashir has not written anything that can be used as teaching material for radical groups.
“Also, with the government’s crackdown on‘ radicals, ’I doubt Bashir has much room for radical preaching, even if he wants to,” Jones said.
Bashir was transferred from solitary confinement to an island in Gunung Sindur Prison in 2016 on grounds of age and health and was hospitalized several times due to his deteriorating health.
President Joko Widodo almost granted a request for his early release in 2019 on humanitarian grounds, but backed down after protests by the Australian government and relatives of the victims of the Bali attacks.
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Associated Press writer Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, contributed to this report.