Jakarta, May 13: An Indonesian court today ruled that the treason trial of alleged terror group leader Abu Bakar Bashir should continue and rejected defence claims that the indictment was flawed. "The objections of the legal defence team are rejected. The indictment has met formal legal requirements and it is clear and complete," said judge Muhammad Soleh.
"Therefore the trial should continue."
Bashir, the alleged leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) regional terror group, is accused of waging a bloody JI terror campaign to try to topple the government and set up an Islamic state.
His lawyers had complained that the charges were based on the alleged word of one man -- suspected al-Qaeda operative Omar al-Faruq, who as arrested in Indonesia and secretly handed over to US authorities.
They said a court in Jakarta had no authority to try Bashir since the allegations referred to events at Sukoharjo district in central Java, where Bashir founded an Islamic boarding school at Ngruki.
They also submitted that the main charge also related to events in Malaysia, where Bashir lived in exile from 1985 in 1999, and was legally flawed. Bureau Report