Prophet of doom walks
Indonesia to release Muslim cleric accused of organising Bali bombing
EXTREMIST Islamic terrorist Abu Bakar Bashir is preparing to walk free from prison in Indonesia on Friday.
Bashir is the alleged mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 200, including 88 Australians.
The spiritual leader of the terror organisation Jemaah Islamiah (JI) was jailed in 2011 on terrorism charges.
Rika Aprianti, a spokeswoman for Indonesia’s department of corrections, confirmed he would be freed on Friday.
“He will be released on January 8, as his prison term expired and ended,” Ms Aprianti said.
Bashir, 82, was refused parole in 2018 because the Muslim cleric would not declare loyalty to Indonesia’s philosophy of “Pancasila” — five principles of unity, democracy, social justice, belief in one God and civilised humanity. It is compulsory in Indonesia for terrorist inmates to declare loyalty to Pancasila, and vow not to repeat their crimes, before they are released.
The ageing cleric is listed on the United Nations index of international terrorists.
He insists Indonesia should be governed by sharia law, rather than civil law, and that he answers only to God.
The militant has decades of form as a terrorist.
In 2005, he was found guilty of involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings and was sentenced to 2½ years in prison.
That sentence was overturned on appeal.
When he was released in 2006, he immediately campaigned to enforce sharia law throughout the archipelago.
In 2008, Bashir formed the JI splinter group Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid, which was immediately designated as a terror group by the UN, Australia, the UK, Canada, the US, China and Japan.
JI is a military-grade terror organisation based in Southeast Asia with powerful cells in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.
It aims to unite the region as a sovereign Islamic state. Bashir’s release comes at a time when Indonesia’s crack counter terrorism squad, Densus 88, has made a series of high-profile arrests of fugitive terrorists.
Among those are Zulkarnaen, whose real name is Aris Sumarsono, and the bomb maker Upik Lawangan.