BANGKOK – One of Indonesia’s most notorious terrorists, Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, was released from prison on Friday after serving more than 10 years in prison for setting up a terrorist training camp.
Mr. Bashir, 82, is the co-founder and former spiritual leader of a secret terrorist group, Jemaah Islamiyah, which carried out a series of deadly attacks in the 2000s, including the bombing of Bali in 2002 in which 202 people were killed, many of them Australian tourists.
Prison authorities said he completed his sentence with a 55-month reduction for good behavior, Islamic holidays and other reduction. His release was confirmed by his lawyer, Achmad Midan.
In Australia, family members and friends of the Bali bombings expressed disappointment over the release of Mr. Bashir. Australia’s Foreign Secretary Marise Payne has asked Indonesia to keep a close eye on its activities.
“Our embassy in Jakarta has made clear our concern that such individuals are prevented from further inciting others to carry out future attacks on innocent civilians,” Payne said this week.
The release of Mr. Bashir arrives as the government tries to fight another radical Islamic group, the Islamic Defense Front, whose ardent leader, Rizieq Shihab, called for a ‘moral revolution’. The authorities arrested Mr. Rizieq was arrested last month on charges of violating coronavirus protocols, and they ordered his organization to be disbanded.
The country’s anti-terrorism police also arrested 23 members of Jemaah Islamiyah last month, including Aris Sumarsono, better known as Zulkarnaen, a leader who has been wanted for 18 years.
Despite Mr. Bashir’s long history of terrorist activities, experts said they did not believe he posed a threat, given his age and isolation from the extremist movement while in prison.
“I do not think his release will change anything in Indonesia,” said Sidney Jones, director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict in Jakarta, who has been following his activities for a long time. “Today’s terrorists can find on their smartphones everything they need in terms of inspiration and instructions. They may respect him, but the world has moved on. ”
Mr. Bashir, whose white hair and grin give him a friendly, grandfatherly appearance, has long sought to establish a caliphate or Islamic state in Southeast Asia by the necessary means.
In 1972, he co-founded an Islamic school in Java, which serves as a recruiting field for Jemaah Islamiyah.
A crime by dictator Suharto against Islamists forced him to flee to Malaysia, where he lived for years and helped build the group into a formidable international network with cells in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. .
Among his closest associates was his fellow Indonesian cleric, Riduan Isamuddin, also known as Hambali, who was believed to be Al Qaeda’s main link with Jemaah Islamiyah and the mastermind of numerous bombings. He has been in Guantánamo Bay Prison for 14 years.
After the fall of Suharto in 1998, the two clerics returned from Malaysia to Indonesia, and Jemaah Islamiyah began his local campaign of violence, including bombings of churches, the Bali nightclub and the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta.
The United States has Mr. Bashir accused him of being an important undertaking for Al Qaeda, but the Indonesian authorities had difficulty enforcing the charges. He was acquitted of seven charges of terrorism for the bombing of Bali, but served 26 months on charges of conspiracy and immigration.
Mr. Bashir praised the Bali bombers as ‘Islamic heroes’, but denied any responsibility.
Mr. Bashir was re-arrested in 2010 for helping to fund and fund a militant group that set up an armed training camp in Aceh province. At the time of his trial, his lawyer claimed that the clergy were only facing charges due to pressure from Washington.
His release comes ten years and five months after his arrest.
The president of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, was seeking a second term in 2019, but was on the verge of ousting Mr. Bashir earlier released as concession to conservative Muslims. But he withdrew the plan amid strong opposition at home and in Australia.
Mr. Bashir ‘is a common name, but he is no longer influential’, said Alto Labetubun, an Indonesian terrorist analyst. ‘There is always a possibility for him to be a protector of a cycle of violence or new acts of terrorism. But I believe his era is over. ”
Mr. Bashir’s family members said they would not plan a big celebration to welcome him home, perhaps they learned a lesson from Mr. Rizieq, who was arrested after arranging rallies for thousands of supporters in defiance of coronavirus protocols following his return from self-imposed exile in Saudi Arabia.