Jakarta, May 29: Lawyers for Indonesian Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir said today the testimony of four key Bali bomb suspects has cleared their client of terror links. "I would not say that we scored a resounding victory but the testimonies were definitively in our favour and not theirs (prosecutors)," Wirawan Adnan told a news agency, referring to testimony given yesterday in Bashir's treason trial. Mahendradatta, another senior member of Bashir's legal team, was more upbeat -- saying freedom is close for his client. Prosecutors say Bashir, 64, leads the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) regional terror group. He faces 20 years in jail if convicted of trying to topple the government through a JI terror campaign, and to set up an Islamic state.

In an attempt to prove his links to terror, they summoned the four Bali suspects to tell what they know about Bashir.


Prosecutors accuse Bashir of authorising the Christmas eve bombings of Indonesian churches in 2000 that killed 19 people.


But none of yesterday's witnesses -- Ali Imron, Mukhlas, Mubarok and Imam Samudra -- implicated Bashir in bombings.

None of the witnesses linked him definitively to JI, although three of the four said they themselves are JI members.
Bureau Report