Radical Indonesian cleric linked to Bali bombings will be told of Islamic State’s ‘faults’, his son says
- Abdul Rohim, the son of Jemaah Islamiah co-founder Abu Bakar Bashir, says father was a ‘victim’ for believing in teaching of Islamist extremists
- But a former counterterrorism police general warned that the country’s myriad radical groups would seek Bashir out and wait for a directive from him to wage jihad
Abu Bakar Bashir, 82, is set to be freed from an Indonesian jail where he has spent almost 10 years. He was sentenced to 15 years jail in 2011 for supporting an extremist training camp in Aceh province that the police discovered and broke up in 2010, but had 55 months cut for good behaviour.
Bashir co-founded the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah, the group behind all of Indonesia’s major terror attacks from 1999 to 2010. The Bali bombings, which killed 202 people, including many foreign tourists and 11 Hong Kong residents, was the worst terror incident on Indonesian soil.
Bashir had previously been jailed and served a 30-month sentence for being part of a conspiracy behind the bombings but the Supreme Court quashed his conviction in 2006 on appeal. Bashir has always denied any involvement in the attack.
While in prison In 2014, he pledged allegiance to Islamic State – a commitment that he has yet to rescind.
Bashir’s son, Abdul Rohim, told This Week in Asia that he was previously unable to tell his father about the faults of Isis during prison visits because “time was limited when we met him” and it was “difficult to communicate and have a dialogue on such a sensitive matter as we were also monitored by officials and we were not at ease”.
But now, he said: “As his son, I have tasked myself right this moment, to tell him the serious wrongs that exist in Isis. That is my programme.”