Radical Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir arrested for terrorism

Radical Indonesian cleric arrested for terrorism

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s elite anti-terror unit arrested radical Islamist cleric Abu Bakar Bashir on Monday for alleged ties to a group accused of plotting Mumbai-style attacks targeting foreigners and several high-profile assassinations.

Bashir, who has been arrested twice before and spent several years in jail, arrived at the national police headquarters under tight security.

“The United States is behind this!” shouted the bearded cleric, who was wearing his traditional white robe. “This arrest is a blessing … I will be rewarded by Allah!”

The fiery cleric is best known as one of the co-founders of Jemaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaida-linked network responsible for a string of suicide bombings in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, including the 2002 attacks on Bali island that killed 202 people, most of them Western tourists.

He also set up the al-Mukmin boarding school that produced some of the country’s deadliest bombers.

Bashir, who was arrested early Monday in West Java’s Ciamis district, has long denied links to terrorism.

The 72-year-old served 2 1/2 years in jail for his alleged role in the Bali bombings before his conviction was overturned. After his release in 2006, he started holding sermons nationwide calling for the creation of an Islamic state and spewing hatred toward foreigners.

Recently, Bashir formed a new radical group, Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid, or JAT, described by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group as an “ostensibly above-ground organization” that embraced individuals with known ties to fugitive extremists.

Bashir came under police scrutiny in May after three JAT members were arrested for allegedly raising funds for a new group calling itself Al Qaida in Aceh, which had set up an Islamic militant training camp in the country’s far west.

The cell was accused of planning gun attacks on luxury hotels in the capital in an alleged plot reminiscent of the attacks in India’s financial center of Mumbai, where 10 gunmen rampaged through the city in 2008 and left 166 people dead.

The cell also was accused of planning several high-profile assassinations, including on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who said over the weekend that authorities had discovered yet another plot on his life.

On Sunday, five terror suspects were arrested in separate raids in West Java province, and high explosives confiscated.

Bashir’s lawyer, Muhammad Ali, would only say Monday that Bashir’s arrest was “related to the new terror group in Aceh.”

National police spokesman Col. Marwoto Suto details would not be released until later in the day.

The preacher’s son, Abdul Rohim, insisted his father, who went to Ciamis for a preaching engagement, was innocent.

“He was heading back to Solo when police arrested him together with my mother,” he said. “We appeal police to treat my parents well… He was just carrying out his obligations as a Muslim.”

Associated Press Writer Ali Kotarumalos contributed to this report from Jakarta.