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Fri, May 25, 2012
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Bashir Uses Final Defense to Blast 'US Influence'
Olivia Rondonuwu | May 25, 2011

Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir reading his defense statement at South Jakarta District Court on Wednesday. Bashir, a firebrand cleric charged with terrorist activities, described prosecutors Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir reading his defense statement at South Jakarta District Court on Wednesday. Bashir, a firebrand cleric charged with terrorist activities, described prosecutors' sentence demands as the fulfillment of a previous agenda rather than an effort to uphold justice. The prosecutors' demand was not issued to uphold the law, but to fulfill a target to put me behind bars, Bashir said. (EPA Photo)
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jetset24
4:24am May 27, 2011

Don't drag God into your hideous speech old man...God has nothing to do with human evil tactics to control the masses. So please spare the details of your last verdict old fool. Your days are numbered and it will not be paradise where the virgins will be waiting with open arms.

Sadly, the local judicial system keeps this circus show going by letting this old goat expresses his innocence multiple of times. How much does it cost to keep him going actually?? Probably it would be more advantage as how much to keep his mouth shut forever!!!


TsimShaTsui
2:14am May 27, 2011

As usual majority moslem just keep quiet like nothing is wrong. But they will be whining when there is finger pointing moslem as terrorist. This clown is turning court as circus arena and present himself like hero. Why does moslem not consider his act as blasphemy because it is discrediting Islam? Because as I said actually all moslems are in support of this man view and belief as it is real part of Quranic teaching.

TGIF
11:24pm May 25, 2011

It is a despicable motion when Islamic radicals shout "God is great". The "other Muslims" don't even do that. Sadly their silence are not helping the country in exposing that Islamic extremism is a disease killing the very soul of this country's heritage and cultural meaning.


Valkyrie
6:51pm May 25, 2011

Samsuncle:

No, please don't do that. It's just what he's asking for...to be a martyr.

He must be made to suffer the rest of his life in solitary confinement. Just lock the old goat up and throw away the keys would be most ideal.

Samsuncle
5:03pm May 25, 2011

Too bad Soeharto's midnight axe gang didn't catch this thug the first time he before he fled to Malaysia. Perhaps the courts here are confused on the topic of freedom of speech ? Smiling like an Amorizi this guy turns the court room into a circus show and a mouth piece for his violence inciting rhetoric . For the sake of the nation, someone please put a muzzle on him !


Islamist cleric Abu Bakar Bashir used his final defense against charges of funding a militant group on Wednesday to denounce the United States for trying to stop Islamic preaching in Indonesia.

Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence for the frail Bashir, 72, who delivered a speech in a piercing voice accusing the government of of being under strong US influence.

Bashir does not command widespread support in Indonesia, but the speech could inflame hardcore Islamists who have already vowed reprisal attacks following the US killing of Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

Prosecutors said Bashir raised at least Rp 350 million ($41,000) from supporters and funneled some to a militant training camp discovered last year in a remote mountainous part of Aceh.

"Prosecutors accused me of being behind Aceh and being its biggest financier — it is an accusation and slander, with the interests of the pharaoh US for me to be diminished from Indonesian society," Bashir told the South Jakarta court.

 "Because my preaching is considered dangerous, and with this lifetime of jail, the dream of the pharaoh U.S. and its allies will come true."    

Copies of the 55-minute speech were being sold at the court for Rp 20,000, with a form attached to join Bashir's group, Jema'ah Ansharut Tauhid, which has formally renounced violence but whose members have been involved in recent attacks including a suicide bombing at a police mosque on Java island.

Days prior to the trial, his followers invited people with text messages to attend "Bashir's Islamic lecture" in court.

Hundreds of men in skull caps and women in burqas arrived, filling the public gallery and spilling into the court car park to watch it on television. With fists in the air, they shouted "Allahu akbar," or God is greatest".

Police, who have scored success in tackling terror groups in recent years, say militants at the Aceh camp were hatching several plots including an attack on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and hoped to turn Indonesia into an Islamic state.

As well as being the spiritual leader of JAT, Bashir was considered the spiritual leader of the outlawed and now-defunct Jemaah Islamiah, which police have blamed for several bombings including the country's worst ever militant attack, the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people. 

A verdict is not due until June.         


Reuters