Abu Bakar Ba'asyir

Abu Bakar Ba'asyir (أبو بكر باعشير; ; ; born 17 August 1938) also known as Abu Bakar Bashir, Abdus Somad, and Ustad Abu ("Teacher Abu") is an Indonesian Muslim cleric and leader of Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid.

Bashir was born in Jombang on 17 August 1938, to a family of Hadhrami Arab and Javanese descent.

During Indonesian President Suharto's New Order, Bashir and Sungkar were arrested for a number of reasons, firstly for actively supporting Sharia, the non-recognition of the Indonesian national ideology Pancasila which in part promotes religious pluralism.

Secondly, the refusal of their school to salute the Indonesian flag which signified Bashir's continual refusal to recognise the authority of a secular Indonesian state.

He ran the Al-Mukmin boarding school in Ngruki, Central Java, which he co-founded with Abdullah Sungkar in 1972.

He was in exile in Malaysia for 17 years during the secular New Order administration of President Suharto resulting from various activities, including urging the implementation of Sharia law.

Ba'asyir has two sons—Abdul Roshid Ridyo Ba'asyir, born 31 January 1974 in Sukobarjo, Central Java, Indonesia; and Abdul Rahim Ba'asyir, born 16 November 1977 in Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia, and a daughter, Zulfur.

Bashir appealed but was subsequently imprisoned without trial from 1978 to 1982.

Soon after his release, Bashir was convicted on similar charges; he was also linked to the bomb attack on the Buddhist temple Borobudur in 1985 but fled to Malaysia.

During his years in exile Bashir undertook religious teachings in both Malaysia and Singapore.

The United States government alleged that during this period he became involved with Jemaah Islamiyah, a militant Islamist group.

Bashir remained in exile until Indonesian President Suharto's fall in 1998.

Bashir returned to Indonesia in 1999 and became a cleric, renewing his call for Sharia law.

The charges are mainly related to the 2000 Christmas Eve bombings against Christian churches, which killed 18 people.

In the Indonesian court, he was found not guilty of treason because the state failed to prove its case, but was found guilty on the immigration violations.

In a local TV news interview, Metro TV, when asked, 'Are you truly a terrorist?'; He simply answered, 'No, I've never killed anyone.' He was sentenced to three years in prison, but the sentence was subsequently reduced to 20 months due to his good behavior in the prison.

Intelligence agencies and the United Nations claim he is the spiritual head of Jemaah Islamiyah (also known as JI), best known for the 2002 Bali bombings and which has links with Al-Qaeda.

In June 2002, the U.S. government asked Indonesia to turn over Omar al-Faruq.

Megawati's administration captured Al-Faruq and transferred him to American custody, and he was subsequently held in Bagram prison in Afghanistan.

Similarly, US State Department translator Fred Burks revealed during Bashir's trial in Indonesia that the USA government had asked President Megawati secretly to hand-over Bashir in a meeting at Megawati's home in September 2002.

Present at that meeting was US ambassador to Indonesia Ralph L. Boyce, National Security Council official Karen Brooks, and an unnamed CIA official.

Megawati refused to transfer Bashir saying, "I can't render somebody like him. People will find out".

Secondary charges in the same indictment charge him of involvement in the 2002 Bali bombing, the first time he has faced charges in relation to that attack which killed 202 people and considered Indonesia's deadliest terrorist attack.

On April 14, 2003, he was formally charged by the Indonesian government with treason, immigration violations, and providing false documents and statements to the Indonesian police.

On October 15, 2004, he was arrested by the Indonesian authorities and charged with involvement in the bomb attack on the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta on August 5, 2003, which killed 14 people.

On March 3, 2005, Bashir was found guilty of conspiracy over the 2002 attacks, but was found not guilty of the charges surrounding the 2003 bombing.

He was sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment.

On August 17, 2005, as part of the tradition of remissions for Indonesia's Independence Day, Bashir's jail term was cut by 4 months and 15 days.

On June 14, 2006, to cheers from his supporters waiting outside, Abu Bakar Bashir was released, having served 25+ months in Jakarta's Cipinang prison, where he held court and coordinated the publication of a commemorative book with his release.

About forty bodyguards in uniform black jackets linked arms to escort Bashir through chanting crowds.

After returning to the boarding school for which he is the spiritual leader, he pledged a renewed campaign to impose Islamic sharia law on Indonesia.

He also called Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, to convert to Islam in order to save him from hell and receive God's forgiveness.

Howard said that Australians would be "extremely disappointed, even distressed" at the news of the release.

In August 2006, Bashir claimed that the 2002 Bali bombs were replaced by the American CIA with a "micro-nuclear" weapon.

He also claimed the original bombs were only intended to injure people, not kill them - despite the bombers' own admissions and public testimony.

In answer to one reporter's question as to what the West and the United States can do to make the world safer, Bashir replied, "They have to stop fighting Islam. That's impossible because it is sunnatullah [destiny, a law of nature], as Allah has said in the Koran. If they want to have peace, they have to accept to be governed by Islam."

On December 21, 2006, Bashir's conviction was overturned by Indonesia's Supreme Court.

He publicly criticised the United Nations because he remained on the body's list of international terrorists, saying "I am terrorist number 35 on the list."

In October 2008, Bashir announced he intends to start a new Islamic group in Indonesia, JAT or Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid ("partisans of the oneness of God"), at the time the Indonesian government was preparing to execute the three Bali bombers.

In August 2014, he publicly pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and his declaration of a caliphate.