Ba'asyir terror trial to go ahead
JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- A Jakarta court has ruled that the terror trial of radical Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir can go ahead, despite earlier doubts on the strength of the charges.
Ba'asyir went on trial late last month over terrorism charges related to the Bali, Marriott and embassy bombings.
The October 2002 bombing of nightclubs in Bali killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, while the August 2003 attack on the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta killed 12.
A suicide bomb at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta's Kuningan district on September 9 killed 10 people, including at least one suicide bomber, and wounded more than 100 others.
Ba'asyir was arrested in 2002, but courts later ruled that the charges of terrorism links were unproven and instead he served 18 months in prison for immigration violations.
"There is no reason for the court to declare that the charges were incomplete," Reuters reported chief judge Sudarto as saying on Thursday, delivering the decision of the five-judge South Jakarta court panel hearing the case.
Ba'asyir's lawyers had argued that the charges were full of shortcomings and should be thrown out.
Ba'asyir is alleged to be the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, but has called the charges against him a "joke" and "laughable."
The trial is an early test for Indonesia's recently elected president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who campaigned on a platform which included cracking down on terrorism.
Earlier this week, police announced the arrest of four terror suspects wanted over the September 9 suicide blast in Jakarta.
Two other fugitives wanted by Indonesia in connection with terror activities, Malaysians Azahari Husin and Noordin Mohammed Top, are still on the run. They are regarded as senior JI operatives and have a price of more than $100,000 each on them. (Full story)
