Ba'asyir refuses to attend hearing

Terrorist defendant Abu Bakar Baasyir again refused to attend his trial session at South Jakarta District Court on Thursday, scheduled to hear testimonies of prosecutors' witnesses, following a similar move made by his lawyers.

Earlier, the lawyers had announced that they would not attend the Thursday and Monday trial sessions in protest over the trial process, which they deemed unfair. The attorneys also accused the judges of being biased, in particular in regard to their decision to allow witnesses to give testimonies via teleconference.

Ba'asyir attended Monday's trial session alone, but decided against coming at all on Thursday. He and his lawyers had walked out of previous trial sessions for the same reason.

Ba’asyir had sent judges a letter asking them to allow him to be absent from the hearing, saying he wanted to stand by the decision made by his lawyers.

“[I won't come] unless they bring in a witness who is an expert in Islamic jurisprudence and who can make a judgment on [jihad preparations]. Then I will have a dialog with the witness,” Ba'asyir says in the letter, copies of which were distributed to the media.

Kompas.com reported that during what was supposed to be his trial session, Ba'asyir would stay at a detention room at South Jakarta District Court instead.

Ba’asyir is currently being tried on multiple charges, including allegedly pooling funds for a military-style terrorist training camp in Aceh. The camp was raided by the police in February last year.