(8 Jan 2021) A firebrand cleric who inspired bombings in Bali and other attacks walked free from an Indonesian prison Friday after completing his sentence for funding the training of Islamic militants.
Police said they will monitor the activities of Abu Bakar Bashir, who is 82 and ailing.
Following his release, Bashir was seen arriving at his home at the Islamic boarding school he cofounded in Solo city, about 540 kilometers (335 miles) east of the capital, Jakarta.
The slender, white-bearded Bashir, an Indonesian of Yemeni descent, was the spiritual leader of the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah network behind the 2002 bombings on the tourist island of Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, including 88 Australians, leaving a deep scar in that country.
Bashir was imprisoned in 2011 for his links to a militant training camp in religiously conservative Aceh province.
He was convicted of funding the military-style camp to train Islamic militants and sentenced to 15 years in jail.
He received a total of 55 months of sentence reductions, which are often granted to prisoners on major holidays, said Rika Aprianti, spokesperson for the corrections department at the Justice Ministry.
Bashir was escorted by the National Police's counterterrorism squad, known as Densus 88, when he left at dawn from Gunung Sindur prison in West Java's Bogor town, Bashir's son, Abdul Rohim, told The Associated Press.
Ahead of his arrival at the school in Solo, police removed five large welcoming banners and dozens of smaller placards, saying they would attract people, and replaced them with a single banner announcing there would be no celebrations.
National Police spokesperson Ahmad Ramadhan said police would monitor Bashir's activities.
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