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 of a 15-year sentence for helping to establish a terrorist training camp.
Bashir, 82, is a co-founder and former spiritual leader of an underground terrorist group, Jemaah Islamiyah, who carried out a series of deadly attacks in the 2000s, including the bombing of a Bali nightclub in 2002 that killed 202 people So many of the Australian tourists.
Prison officials said he served his sentence with a 55-month reduction for good behavior, Islamic holidays and other reductions. His release was confirmed by his lawyer, Achmad Midan.
In Australia, relatives and friends of the victims of the Bali attack expressed disappointment at Bashir’s release. Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne urged Indonesia to monitor its activities closely.
“Our embassy in Jakarta has made clear our concern that such individuals will be prevented from inciting others to carry out future attacks against innocent civilians,” said Payne this week.
Bashir’s release comes as the government tries to fight another radical Islamic group, the Islamic Defenders Front, whose fierce leader, Rizieq Shihab, called for a “moral revolution”. Authorities arrested Rizieq last month on charges of violating coronavirus protocols and ordered his organization to dissolve.
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 had been wanted for 18 years.
Despite 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 during his arrest.
“I don’t think his release will change anything in Indonesia,” said Sidney Jones, director of the Institute for Conflict Policy Analysis in Jakarta, which has long followed his activities. “Today’s terrorists can find everything they need in terms of inspiration and instruction on their smartphones. They may respect you, but the world has changed. “
Mr. Bashir, whose white hair and smile gives him a kind grandfather appearance, has long sought to establish a caliphate, or Islamic state, in Southeast Asia by all means necessary.
In 1972, he co-founded an Islamic school in central Java, which served as a recruiting ground for Jemaah Islamiyah.
The dictator Suharto’s crackdown on Islamists forced him to flee to Malaysia, where he lived for many years and helped transform the group into a formidable international network with cells in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.
Among his 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 mentor of several bombings. He has been in prison at Guantánamo Bay for 14 years.
After Suharto’s fall in 1998, the two clerics returned from Malaysia to Indonesia and Jemaah Islamiyah began its regional campaign of violence, including bombings on churches, the Bali nightclub and the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta.
The United States has accused Bashir of being an important al Qaeda agent, but Indonesian officials have struggled to get the charges to persist. He was acquitted of seven counts of terrorism for the Bali attack, but served 26 months for conspiracy and immigration charges.
Bashir praised the Bali bombers as “Islamic heroes”, but denied any responsibility.
Bashir was arrested again in 2010 for helping to mobilize and finance a militant group that set up an armed training camp in Aceh province. At the time of his trial, his lawyer said the cleric faced charges just because of pressure from Washington.
His release comes 10 years and five months after his arrest.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo, while seeking a second term in 2019, was about to grant Bashir early release as a concession to conservative Muslims. But he withdrew that plan in the face of strong opposition at home and in Australia.
Bashir “is a household name, but he is no longer influential,” said Alto Labetubun, an Indonesian terrorism analyst. “There is always the possibility that he is the patron of a cycle of violence or new terrorist acts. But I believe your era is over. “
Bashir’s family members said they did not plan a big party to welcome him home, perhaps having learned a lesson from Rizieq, who was arrested after organizing meetings of thousands of supporters in defiance of coronavirus protocols after his return from self-imposed exile in Saudi Arabia.