Radical Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir set for prison release: Report

A lawyer for the ailing radical cleric who inspired the Bali bombers says the Indonesian government will release him from prison next week.

The lawyer, Muhammad Mahendradatta, said Friday the decision to release 80-year- old Abu Bakar Bashir was made on humanitarian grounds.

The announcement comes during campaigning for a presidential election due in April in which opponents of President Joko Widodo have tried to discredit him as insufficiently Islamic.

Also due to be released from prison next week is the former governor of Jakarta, a Widodo ally and minority Christian who was toppled by a conservative Islamic movement in 2016 and subsequently sentenced to two years in prison on blasphemy charges.

The 2002 bombings on the popular Indonesian tourist island of Bali by al-Qaida militants killed 202 people, many of them foreigners including 88 Australians.

Australia urged Indonesia last March against any leniency toward Bashir when the government was considering house arrest and other forms of clemency.

The firebrand cleric was arrested almost immediately after the Bali bombings. But prosecutors were unable to prove a string of terrorism-related allegations. He was instead sentenced to 18 months in prison for immigration violations.

In 2011, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for supporting a military-style training camp for Islamic militants.

The 2002 bombings were a turning point in Indonesia’s battle against violent extremists, making heavy security a norm in big cities and forging closer counter-terrorism cooperation with the U.S. and Australia.