Cleric Detained In Bali Bombings

Radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir was taken to the capital Jakarta on Monday for questioning about his alleged links to a terrorist network suspected in the Bali bombings that killed nearly 200, as well as a series of church bombings in 2000.

Supporters pelted police with stones when he was taken from a hospital.

Police want to question Bashir about Jemaah Islamiyah, a regional Islamic group believed to be seeking a Muslim super-state in Southeast Asia and allied to the al Qaeda terror network. The group is suspected of involvement in the Bali attacks.

Bashir was formally arrested Oct. 18 after he had checked into the Muhammadiyah Hospital. He is charged with ordering a string of church bombings in December 2000 that killed 19 people and plotting the assassination of President Megawati Sukarnoputri. He is not a suspect in the Oct. 12 nightclub bombings in Bali.

Indonesia has been under intense international pressure since then to crack down on Islamic militants. U.S. President George W. Bush this week urged the Indonesian government to act forcefully against those suspected of terrorist activities. Several other countries, including Australia and Singapore, have called on Megawati to toughen her anti-terrorism stance.

Bashir, who denies any links to terrorists, claims he is being made a scapegoat for their actions.

The protesters tossed stones at a police motorcade that escorted Bashir to the airport. He was escorted from the hospital, where he has been for the last two weeks with respiratory problems, in a wheelchair.

In Jakarta, Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono sought to calm Bashir's supporters by saying the cleric was detained to be "investigated, not convicted."

"A court will determine whether he is guilty or not," he said. "We do not want to punish the innocent while the real terrorists remain free looking for new opportunities."

Bashir was taken to a police hospital in the city's eastern suburbs upon his arrival in Jakarta.

Bashir's brother Umar Baradja said police forced their way into Bashir's hospital room, breaking down the door with their rifle butts, to get him. He said they dragged Bashir from his bed, placed him in a wheelchair and pushed him past a crowd of angry students.

"The police promised that Bashir's family could go with him to Jakarta, but then just took him away," Baradja said in Solo. "The police are traitors."

Earlier Monday, radical Muslim leaders and students as young as 12 — many from Bashir's religious boarding school in Solo — gathered outside the Muhammadiyah Hospital.

Members of the crowd pumped their fists as they chanted, "We are ready to die." They held banners that read, "We are not terrorists" and "Our teacher will not flee."