An Indonesian court has rejected a lawsuit brought by lawyers for terror suspect Abu Bakar Bashir which sought his release from police detention.
Bashir's arrest on April 30 was "carried out by police according to procedures which are stipulated in the penal code," Chief Judge Hari Sasongko said at South Jakarta district court. Sasongko said police had also convinced the court they had enough evidence to build a case against Bashir.
"Allahu Akbar!" (God is greatest) shouted some of Bashir's supporters inside the court in a defiant response to the ruling.
The lawyers had brought a lawsuit against national police chief General Da'i Bachtiar, demanding the Islamic cleric's release. They argued that police did not follow proper procedures in arresting Bashir and were acting under pressure from the United States.
One of them, Achmad Michdan, said he would appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court. "The panel of judges still do not have the guts to carry out a breakthrough against cases with political nuances," he told reporters.
Police say they have new evidence that Bashir, 65, led the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror network, after a court earlier cleared him of the charge. They rearrested him on April 30 as he stepped out of a Jakarta prison after completing a sentence for immigration violations.
Lawyers for Bashir said he never saw the identification of the policeman who arrested him and he and his family were not given copies of the arrest warrant as required by law.
Bashir, who was not present in court for the hearing on the lawsuit, has denied involvement in terrorism and has said the allegations were a US-inspired smear campaign against Islam.
Indonesian authorities say Bashir, by virtue of his alleged leadership of JI, will be charged with involvement in attacks between 1999 and 2002 – including the Bali nightclub bombings which killed 202 people in October 2002.
Police are holding him under an anti-terror law which allows detention without trial for six months.
A court last September jailed Bashir for four years for involvement in a JI plot to overthrow the government but said there was no proof he led the network. An appeal court overturned the treason conviction but ruled that Bashir must serve three years for immigration-related offences. The Supreme Court later halved that sentence.