One unspoken element is the likelihood that he’s too popular to be charged. And what does that tell you? This man has spoken openly about violent jihad, and defended the Bali bombings. From AP, with thanks to many:
JAKARTA, Indonesia – Indonesian police dropped plans Wednesday to charge a radical cleric in the 2002 Bali bombings, but said the man Washington accuses of being a terror mastermind in Southeast Asia will remain in jail.
The 65-year-old Abu Bakar Bashir will be charged with other crimes, including heading the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror group and a deadly suicide attack last year on Jakarta’s J.W. Marriott Hotel, chief detective Suyitno Landung said. Jemaah Islamiyah was blamed for both attacks.
The announcement followed last week’s landmark ruling by the Constitutional Court, which barred the retroactive use of an anti-terror law rushed through parliament after the Bali bombings. The explosions killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists….
Earlier this year, U.S. Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge said in Jakarta that Bashir had “intense and deep involvement in the planning and execution of terrorist activities.” Australia’s foreign minister called Bashir a “loathsome creature” and said he should remain behind bars.
His case is sensitive in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation. Authorities want to be aggressive in the U.S.-led anti-terror war while not being seen as subject to Washington’s influence.