Abu Bakar Bashir speaks for first time in years during court hearing in Cilicap

Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has spoken in public in a court hearing where he's fighting terror charges. In court he said that the judges and prosecutors who convicted him back in 2011 are "sinners" and will "go to hell".
 
TIM PALMER: The hardline Indonesian cleric, Abu Bakar Bashir, has spoken in public for the first time in years at a court hearing in the Javanese town of Cilacap, where he's fighting his terror conviction.
A major security operation was in place to control hundreds supporters of the one-time spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, the al Qaeda-linked group that spawned the Bali bomb plot.
Indonesia correspondent Adam Harvey is in Cilacap.

ADAM HARVEY: Now, it's the same Abu Bakar Bashir as always - un-reconstituted, just as incendiary and offensive as ever.
If his legal team thought Bakar Bashir would do himself some favours they were mistaken, because Bashir got up and made a statement in court today in Cilacap and among the things he said, he said that the judges and prosecutors who convicted him back in 2011 are sinners and will go to hell.
He said that Muslims who are fighting for Allah all around the world are fighting for Allah's cause and anyone who says that they're terrorists are sinners and they'll go to hell. So he hasn't changed one bit.

TIM PALMER: Now, Abu Bakar Bashir is not in prison at the moment for anything in connection with the original charges against him as spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah to do with the Bali bombers, is he? What is his detention at the moment about?

ADAM HARVEY: It's over the raising money for an extremist training camp in Aceh. It's a complicated case. Bashir was convicted of aiding terrorism by helping to raise money for extremism.
He says and his legal team made the case today that that money was not intended to be used for any other cause than fighting for people's rights in Palestine.
So on the one hand he's saying that there was legal errors, technicalities, mistakes in the original case back in 2011; and on the other he's saying that, you know, people fighting all around the world for the cause of God aren't terrorists: they're doing God's will.

TIM PALMER: Now, over the years Abu Bakar Bashir's supporters have always been able to put on a bit of a show outside various hearings. What was the story today?

ADAM HARVEY: Yeah, well, I saw this morning that it might have been a bit of overkill when I saw the razor wire go up in the streets around Cilacap and these enormous armoured vehicles pulling up. There must have been half a dozen of these, these giant tanks, really. Hundreds of police.
But then when I saw the crowd, maybe it wasn't overkill. There were some very angry people outside, working themselves up. You could hear them throughout the court hearing, shouting "Allah Akbar" inside the court room. About 40 of them were let in.
Strange garb as well for a court room, if you're used to looking at the crowds in a court in Australia. There were people with face masks on, people with bandannas over their faces.
It was interesting watching the people jostle for positions as well; there's obviously a hierarchy amongst the extremist supporters of Abu Bakar Bashir because a couple of the younger guys were booted out and made to go outside to make way for some septuagenarian supporters with long, white beards.

TIM PALMER: How soon might we know whether Abu Bakar Bashir's going to be released under this appeal?

ADAM HARVEY: Well, this appeal only grants, if this appeal is successful, he'll get a judicial review before the Supreme Court, so you're looking at many, many more court cases before he's eventually freed.
Next week it's the prosecution's turn in the sun. The week after that there'll be a decision made about whether this will go to a higher court.

TIM PALMER: Indonesia correspondent Adam Harvey speaking from Cilacap.

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