Baasyir denies involvement in bombings

Terrorism defendant Abu Bakar Ba’asyir on Thursday denied his involvement in three bomb-related incidents in Jakarta on Tuesday.

“That shows that my [case] is being fabricated,” he said before his trial at South Jakarta District Court on Thursday, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

The bombs were addressed to three people: politician and liberal Islam activist Ulil Abshar Abdhalla, National Narcotics Agency chief Gories Mere, and Pancasila Youth Movement chief Yapto Soerjosumarsono.

One of the explosives, which had been targeted at Ulil, exploded in the Utan Kayu Community compound, in East Jakarta, as a police officer attempted to diffuse it. He was seriously injured in the blast, which cost him his left hand.

Baasyir said the bombs, disguised as books, were attempts to fabricate a case against him, also refuting accusations of his role behind the twin bombings of the Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in Jakarta and Bali bombings in 2002 and 2005.

“I never did that. As for the Marriott bombing in which prosecutors withdrew charges, I am still facing trial,” the firebrand cleric said.

Ba’asyir alleged that the fabrication of cases against him was an alert of a war brewing between Islam and the enemies of Islam.

“This cannot possibly be devoid of fabrication. Especially Densus 88 that … accused me of the Bali bombs,” Baasyir said, referring to the special antiterrorism unit.