Radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir advocates sharia law for Indonesia on Bali bombing 20th anniversary

Abu Bakar Bashir – freed last year after a second terror-related jail term – has conceded the attacks 20 years ago were wrong but insisted the masterminds had ‘good intentions’.

Radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir is escorted by prosecutors and police officers upon arrival for his trial at a district court in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2011. Picture: AP

Abu Bakar Bashir, the ageing Islamic cleric said to have given his blessing for the 2002 Bali bombings, has spoken out on the 20th anniversary of the attacks to insist the masterminds of the region’s worst terror strike had “good intentions”.

The 84-year-old firebrand, released from an Indonesian jail in January last year after serving a second term for terror-related offences, told Japan’s Kyodo newswire he believed the bombings were wrong.

But, he added, the three ringleaders executed for their role in the twin bombings that targeted the Kuta nightclub district had “good intentions and purposes” because they were trying to “get rid of sinful deeds” such as music and alcohol, which went against Islamic law.

Radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir waves as he arrives at his home at the al-Mukmin Islamic boarding school in Ngruki in January 2021. Picture: Getty Images

Senior Jemaah Islamiaah commanders Imam Samudra, Ali Ghufron (Mukhlas) and his brother Amrozi were executed by firing squad in 2008.

Bashir is long alleged to be the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiaah, the al-Qa’ida-linked militant group to which the Bali bombing ringleaders belonged, though told Kyodo he was not a JI leader and had no involvement in the Bali attacks.

The 9/11 of our region – which killed 202 people, 88 of them Australian – marked the beginning of a wave of large-scale attacks in Indonesia that brought terrorism to our doorstep.

At least four large-scale terror attacks would follow; on Jakarta’s JW Marriot hotel in 2003, the Australian embassy in 2004, a second Bali bombing in 2005; and a second attack on the Marriott, together with the nearby Ritz-Carlton hotel, in 2009.

Most were the work of JI operatives seeking to wage war against infidels and install an Islamic sharia state in Muslim-majority Indonesia.

Bashir was arrested in the wake of the 2002 Bali blasts and initially found guilty for his role in the attack, though his conviction was overturned on appeal and he served just 26 months for immigration violations and supporting a terrorist training camp.

He was jailed again in 2011 for 15 years for supporting more militant camps but granted early release on Friday after a series of remissions for good behaviour.

A 2019 proposal, initially approved by Indonesian President Joko Widodo, to release Bashir was scuttled amid anger in Indonesia over his refusal to pledge allegiance to the state, and in Australia where successive governments have expressed reservations about his release.

He was eventually released in January 2021 and remains closely monitored by Indonesia’s counter-terrorism unit, Densus 88.

Bashir told Kyodo he continued to believe Indonesia should implement Islamic (sharia) law, and that its secular constitution was a mistake.

“What we have to do now is work hard to make Indonesia implement Islamic law because Indonesia is actually supposed to be an Islamic state. But successive governments have not been willing to implement it,” he said.

Bashir had already sent two letters to Mr Widodo urging him to accept the idea and planned to send more, he added.

The ailing cleric – who pledged allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2014 only to withdraw it later – still leads Islamic prayers five times a day at the mosque at the centre of his Al-Mukmin Islamic school, which was once dubbed the nursery ground for terrorists because so many militants were educated there.