Jakarta, Mar 10: Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, due to be released from prison next month, had "intense and deep'' involvement in the planning and execution of terror attacks, US Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge alleged on Wednesday. Ridge said he was disappointed with the Indonesian Supreme Court's decision on Tuesday to halve Bashir's 3-year prison sentence on unrelated immigration charges. Bashir was scheduled to be released April 4 after spending 18 months behind bars.

Ridge said he hoped Bashir could "be brought to justice in a different way.'' He did not elaborate.

The United States government believed that Bashir had an "intense and deep involvement in the planning and execution of terrorist activities,'' Ridge said after meeting with Indonesia's Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Bashir was detained shortly after the October 2002 Bali bombings amid accusations he headed Jemaah Islamiyah, the Al-Qaeda linked regional Islamic terror group blamed for blasts.

But he was not implicated in the bombings, which killed 202 people, and was instead convicted on unrelated forgery and immigration charges. Bureau Report