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– ABU BAKAR BASHIR

Published June 27, 2007

Abu  Bakar Bashir was born on 08/17/1938 in East Java, Indonesia. From the middle of the 60s’ Abu  Bakar Bashir spent his time in teaching Islam. He runs, from 1972, the Al-Mukmin boarding school in Ngruki, Central Java which he co-founded with Abdullah Sungkar, later his associate in INDONESIAN JI . Abu  Bakar Bashir became influential among radical Muslims in South East Asia. He preached for Islamic communities the necessary pre-condition for setting up an Islamic state.

Abu  Bakar Bashir was arrested with Abdullah Sungkar in 1978 in Indonesia on subversion charges for alleged involvement in ‘Komando Jihad’ and ‘Darul Islam’ following a crackdown on Muslim political activists in Indonesia by Suharto’s regime.  In 1985 Abu  Bakar Bashir fled into exile in Malaysia.

 In 01/1993 Abu  Bakar Bashir founded in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital, with Abdullah Sungkar, while both were in exile from Indonesia, the INDONESIAN JI . That organization became, in the next decade, the greenhouse for Islamic terror in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines and Abu  Bakar Bashir served as its spiritual mentor. Abu  Bakar Bashir returned to Indonesia in 1998.

In 2000 Abu  Bakar Bashir sat on the executive board of the Mujahideen Council, which was formed in Yogyakarta, Java, with  Abu Rusdan as his lieutenant, as an umbrella group for people wanting to turn Indonesia into an Islamic state. Until his arrest a week after the Bali ‘02 Bombings, Abu  Bakar Bashir was a teacher at an Islamic school in Solo, central Java.

Abu  Bakar Bashir was arrested in 10/2002, a week after the Bali ’02 Bombings. He was accused in connection with a number of bomb attacks blamed on INDONESIAN JI – the Bali ‘02 Bombings, series of church attacks in 2000 and of planning the assassination of Megawati Sukarnoputri, Indonesia’s former president. Abu  Bakar Bashir was acquitted from most of the charges and sentenced for four years in jail for treason. Abu  Bakar Bashir was released on medical ground on 03/04/2004.

On 03/30/2004 Abu  Bakar Bashir was rearrested and charged for connections with the Marriott Hotel attack in 2003. On 03/03/2005 Abu  Bakar Bashir was sentenced to 30 months in jail for providing spiritual support to the Bali ‘02 Bombings and the Marriott Hotel attack in 2003. Abu  Bakar Bashir was released from Indonesian jail on 06/14/2006.

On Monday 08/09/2010, the Indonesian police rearrested Abu  Bakar Bashir for alleged involvement with a new armed group arrested few days earlier (see – Arrests 08.08.10). Abu  Bakar Bashir has been charged, on Monday 02/14/2011, with planning to use weapons to commit acts of terror (see – Bashir’s Trial).

On Thursday 06/16/2011 Abu  Bakar Bashir was sentenced, the second time, to 15 years imprisonment.

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