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A Jakarta court on Thursday approved a request by 16 witnesses in the trial of firebrand cleric Abu Bakar Bashir to testify via video teleconferencing because of security concerns.

The witnesses are codefendants in a case related to a paramilitary training camp in Aceh that Bashir is accused of funding and supporting.

Some of the witnesses have already been convicted on terrorism charges in connection with the Aceh camp, which was uncovered by police in February last year.

Judge Herri Swantoro told the South Jakarta District Court the ruling was in accordance with witness protection laws.

“Witnesses who feel they are under threat are allowed to testify without being present in court,” he said.

According to Herri, the 16 witnesses had written letters to the court requesting they be allowed to testify at a venue away from the defendant.

“We have decided to fully approve the witnesses’ requests … to testify without having to face the defendant in person, using the teleconferencing technology,” Herri said.

The court appointed one of the judges to supervise the process and made provisions for a lawyer to accompany the witnesses in the teleconferencing room to ensure fairness, he said.

The prosecution said the witnesses in question would testify from the headquarters of the police’s elite Mobile Brigade (Brimob) unit in Depok.

The decision on the video link was taken after the same panel of five judges said during a preliminary hearing earlier in the day that the trial should continue despite objections from Bashir’s camp that his case was politically motivated.

“There is nothing in the indictment that explicitly shows the case has any political motive. The charges against the defendant are terrorism and nothing else,” one of the judges said.

The panel said the court had the authority and jurisdiction to try Bashir based on an order from the Supreme Court and approvals from the district courts in Tasikmalaya and Sukoharjo.

“We find that the objections from the defendant cannot be accepted and order the prosecution to continue with the examination of the case,” Herri said.

Bashir’s lawyers say they are opposed to the testimony being delivered by the witnesses, many of whom are followers or sympathizers of the cleric, via teleconferencing.

“Video link testimony is not recognized by the procedures in the Criminal Code or the Antiterror Law,” said one of Bashir’s lawyers, Munarman, who is also a senior member of hard-line Islamic Defenders Front (FPI).

“Such a process has been deliberately introduced so that witnesses cannot testify freely. This court is tightly guarded by armed police officers although Jakarta is not classified as an area of conflict, so citing security as the reason is also groundless.”

Munarman said the witnesses would not be able to deliver independent testimony because they would be intimidated by the armed officers.

On the sidelines of the hearing, members of Jamaah Anshorut Tauhid, a fundamentalist group founded by Bashir, distributed a signed statement from one of Bashir’s codefendants, Khairul Ghazhali, saying he was forced by police to testify that the cleric had taken some of the money stolen during an armed robbery at a CIMB Niaga Bank branch in Medan.

“I offer my apology and regret my mistake,” the statement read. “It was not true and was made under duress.”

The statement said Khairul had told investigators Bashir took a 20 percent cut from the CIMB Niaga Bank heist.

The hearing was adjourned until Monday, when witnesses will be cross-examined. The prosecution has asked for two hearings per week because more than 100 witnesses have been called to give testimony.

Bashir remained defiant, saying he could only be tried under Islamic law. “I will never accept my conviction unless it is made under the Islamic law,” the 72-year-old told reporters from his cell. “I reject my detention and I never signed any document on my arrest.”