JAKARTA, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir could face a death sentence after Indonesian police formally charged him with inciting terrorism.
Bashir, 71, has remained in custody since being arrested in August over allegations of involvement in setting up a militant training camp in Aceh, the isolated province of 4.5 million people on the northern tip of Sumatra Island.
The decision to formally charge Bashir, who previously served more than two years in jail before being cleared of involvement with the proscribed Jemaah Islamiah group, comes after police captured one the country's most wanted terrorist suspects, Abu Tholut.
Tholut, 49, was picked up recently during a raid on his wife's house. Tholut, also known as Mostofa, Pranata Yuda and Imron Baehaqi, is believed linked to Jemaah Islamiah, which allegedly has ties with al-Qaida.
JI, whose goals at one time included the formation of a single Islamic south Asian state, continues to be a major security concern for several other regional countries, notably Malaysia and Singapore and parts of the southern Philippines and southern Thailand.
The formal charges against Bashir and the arrest of Tholut meant security authorities took the precaution of warning the public about an increased threat of bombings.
"Bombings can happen any time," Senior Cmdr. Petrus Golose, director of the National Anti-terror Agency, said. "Police won't be able to fight (terrorism) alone."
Bashir, thin and white-bearded, was smiling as police took him to a Jakarta police station to formally charge him. However, he refused to sign the police documents and, instead, signed a document stating his rejection of his arrest, detainment and prosecution.
South Jakarta Prosecutor's Office head M. Yusuf said the evidence to be used by prosecutors includes AK-47 and M-16 rifles, bullets, cellphone call records and proof of bank accounts in various names.
"In the trial, all evidence will be used as clues [for a verdict]," said Yusuf.
Bashir, often described as a firebrand cleric, has been in and out of jail and in 2003 was sentenced to three years in prison on treason and immigration charges related to the 2000 Christmas Eve bombings. The series of coordinated bombings of churches and Christian houses in Jakarta and eight other cities killed 18 people and injured dozens more.
But his sentence was reduced to 18 months and he was released from prison in 2004. On the day of his release, police rearrested him for alleged involvement in the deadly 2002 Bali holiday resort bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 vacationing Australians and 38 Indonesian citizens. Another 240 people were injured.
In 2005, Bashir was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison in relation to the Bali bombings. He later was cleared of those charges, too, and released in June after 26 months in prison.
His latest incarceration stems from a major discovery by police in February of the well-organized Aceh training camp. In May, police raided the headquarters of his Muslim extremist Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid group in Jakarta and arrested three members of JAT on suspicions of having links with the Aceh camp.
The Aceh group was allegedly plotting a major attack on foreigners at luxury Jakarta hotels and several high-profile assassinations, including Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Bashir always maintains his innocence and often blames his arrest on foreign countries interfering with Indonesian affairs.
