Bali blast accused climbs Indonesia popularity chart

Bashir is being held over a series of church bombings and a plot to kill President Megawati Sukarnoputri, not the bomb attacks in Bali that killed nearly 200 people, although suspicion for the October 12 tragedy has fallen on Jemaah Islamiah.

He has resisted questioning and Bashir’s 35-member legal team boasts top human rights lawyers and looks like it will get bigger. The head of Indonesia’s second largest moderate Muslim group visited Bashir in hospital after he was detained. The nation’s Vice-President said he might do the same.

All this poses a challenge to Megawati, a taciturn and passive leader, to thoroughly prosecute a case many diplomats see as a litmus test of her resolve to crack down on Islamic radicalism in the wake of the Bali blasts.

Take prominent human rights campaigner Munarman, a feisty 34-year-old lawyer who runs the Legal Aid Institute, the premier defender of Indonesia’s downtrodden masses. He has no love for radical Islam but has joined the legal team defending Bashir. ‘‘My hunch is that political motivations are certainly stronger here as opposed to upholding the law or combating terrorism,’’ Munarman said in an interview when asked why he thought Bashir had been arrested.

What concerns Indonesians is not Bashir’s radical views but other issues. Munarman said Bashir’s case was a benchmark to ensure new powers to prosecute people over terrorism, introduced in the wake of the Bali blasts, did not open the way to arbitrary arrests. (Reuters)