Victims angry as cleric is cleared of Bali bombings (Guardian)

[Eugene]

2.45pm
Victims angry as cleric is cleared of Bali bombings


Roger Maynard in Sydney
Friday December 22, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

The relatives of Australians killed in the Bali bombings today condemned the Indonesian
supreme court’s decision to clear the Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir of any involvement
in the 2002 attack.

He was released from a Jakarta prison in June after serving nearly 26 months of a two-
and-a-half year sentence for terrorist conspiracy charges. The court’s ruling prompted
a nationwide outpouring of anger in Australia, where the emotional wounds of the Bali
terrorist attack have yet to heal. The bombing killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

Mark Stuart, who lost his son in the bombings, said the whole world knew that Mr Bashir
was responsible. “He’s going to kill more people without even thinking,” he said. Brian
Deegan, whose son Josh was killed in the blast, said he had lost faith in the justice
system in Indonesia. “This is simply part of the overall nightmare that has been set in
place and continuing since October 12 2002,” he told an ABC radio interviewer.

Mr Bashir spoke to journalists at his hardline Islamic boarding school in the central
Javanese town of Solo, praising the court ruling as an act of defiance against the US.
Many countries and courts "are too afraid to stand up to the United States, but the
supreme court decision is honest and brave," he said, adding that he was considering
filing a lawsuit to rehabilitate his name and seek damages.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/indonesia/Story/0,,1977844,00.html

Related: Cleric cleared over Bali bombings - BBC