Abu Bakr

May Allah release him soon, and his arrest incite other brothers.


Abu Tholut to get a team of 16 lawyers

JAKARTA: Recently captured terrorist suspect Abu Tholut will be defended by a team of 16 attorneys “not related to the Muslim Lawyer’s Team [TPM],” team representatives said.

TPM is the legal team defending Abu Bakar Ba’asyir and Fadil Sadama, among other terrorist suspects.

“We know [Abu Tholut] personally,” attorneys Kusniati and Yuswakir said Wednesday at the National Police Headquarters in Jakarta.

Yuswakir and Kusniati said the team had been trying to meet Abu Tholut, alias Imron Baihaqi, since Wednesday morning.

Abu Tholut was captured in Kudus, Central Java, but is now being processed in Jakarta. He had been arrested before for illegal possession of firearms.

“We went to the Brimob [Mobile Brigade] detention center, but then were told to come here. We were given all sorts of reasons [for not meeting Abu Tholut],” Kusniati said, adding that the team of lawyers has been around since 2003, and was called GAIB, which stands for the Advocacy Group for Imran Baihaqi.

Police say they believed Tholut was one of the instructors in a military-style training camp in Jantho, Aceh, which was raided by police in February.

He is also believed to have established a similar camp in the Philippines. Terrorist suspect and Jamaah Anshorut Tauhid (JAT) leader Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, acknowledged his ties to Tholut.

“He’s my friend. He’s a real warrior,” Ba’asyir said at the National Police headquarters last week. — JP