Bali bombings: Indonesia frees suspected mastermind Abu Bakar Bashir
Abu Bakar Bashir, the 82-year-old former spiritual leader of the al-Qaeda-affiliated group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), has been freed from prison in Indonesia after serving two-thirds of a 15-year sentence.
Abu Bakar Ba’asyir was picked up by his family from a jail outside Indonesia’s capital Jakarta early on Friday.
The 82-year-old is the former head of Jemaah Islamiah, an al-Qaeda-inspired group behind the attack that killed 202 people.
Authorities say he will enter a deradicalisation programme.
People from 21 nations died in the blasts on 12 October 2002 on the popular holiday island of Bali. The two bombs had ripped through Paddy’s Irish Bar and the nearby Sari Club in the Kuta tourist district.
It remains to this day Indonesia’s deadliest terrorist attack.
The release has drawn mixed reactions in Indonesia as well as Australia, where most of the victims were from. Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison said it was “distressing” for victims’ families and that “it’s sometimes not a fair world”.
Farihin, a member of JI who lived with Bashir in Malaysia for several years, told a private source that he visited the scholar in prison two months ago and that while he appeared in good health physically, he had trouble remembering the names of his legal team and other friends and acquaintances.
Nevertheless, he insists the years of incarceration will not have dampened Bashir’s ideological effect.
“He still has a strong influence in Indonesia,” Fahirin said ahead of Bashir’s release. “That’s why the Indonesian government is so scared of him. They are more worried about Bashir than Rizieq because Bashir’s influence is much more situational. One word from him [Bashir] and all his followers will rise up. And he believes in armed jihad.”
