Jakarta, March 14: The first of 130 prosecution witnesses will begin giving evidence on today when the trial of radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir on terrorism charges resumes in the South Jakarta District Court.
At least 16 of the witnesses to be called by prosecutors over the course of the trial will give evidence by video link after requesting that they not appear in person because of fears for their own safety.
The panel of judges presiding over the case last week agreed to the request after prosecutors submitted handwritten letters from 16 witnesses, including a number of former key Bashir allies.
Most of those who will give evidence from a detention centre in Jakarta’s east were members of the above-ground extremist group Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid, of which Bashir is the leader, and which he allegedly used as a front to fund a paramilitary training camp discovered last year in Aceh.
A number of them are facing charges in relation to the camp, including Abu Tholut, a former Jemaah Islamiyah area commander and a man known as Ubaid, who is suspected of being the middleman who delivered the funds raised by Bashir.
It is alleged Bashir blessed and funded the camp and a new terrorist cell, known as al-Qaeda in Aceh, which was planning to carry out attacks with suicide squads targeting Westerners, political leaders and police in Indonesia.
Bashir, 72, is charged with seven terrorism-related offences in relation to the camp and the terrorist network found training there, the most serious of which carries the death penalty.
——–Agencies