Indonesian radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir to be freed from jail after his 15-year sentence was reduced
- Bashir was convicted in 2011 for inciting militants to carry out terrorist attacks
The ailing 80-year-old radical cleric who inspired the Bali bombers and other violent extremists in Indonesia will be released from prison, Indonesia’s president said on Friday, slashing a 15-year sentence.
The announcement of Abu Bakar Bashir’s imminent release came during campaigning for a presidential election due in April in which opponents of President Joko Widodo have tried to discredit him as insufficiently Islamic.
“I have considered this decision for a long time, involving the National Police chief and legal experts,” Widodo told reporters. “This release was decided because of humanitarian considerations and also related to his health care.”
The 2002 bombings on the popular Indonesian tourist island of Bali by al-Qaeda-affiliated Jemaah Islamiah militants killed 202 people, many of them foreigners including dozens of Australians.
Australia urged Indonesia last March against any leniency towards Bashir when the government was considering house arrest and other forms of clemency.
Bashir’s lawyer, Muhammad Mahendradatta, said Bashir, who was sentenced and imprisoned in 2011, would be released within days.