Jakarta to question jailed cleric

Ba'asyir could be released within weeks

Indonesia plans to re-question jailed cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, amid Western concern that he will soon be freed.

Police said Ba'asyir would be interrogated under anti-terrorism laws, in a move prompted by new information.

Ba'asyir has denied leading the South East Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI), accused by the US and others of planning the Bali bombings.

He is in prison for immigration offences, and is due to be released at the end of this month.

"I was informed that he will be questioned on Wednesday. I heard they want to link him with the Bali bombings," one of his lawyers, Wirawan Adnan, told the AFP news agency.

Police said that information justifying a new interrogation had been received from a number of sources, including the interrogation by the United States of South East Asia's most significant Islamic militant suspect, known as Hambali.

"We are developing information from witnesses both at home and abroad such as Malaysia and Singapore, in addition to information from Hambali," the national police chief, General Da'i Bachtiar, was quoted as saying by the state Antara news agency.

Mr Adnan said that Ba'asyir had described the developments as a "tyrannical move" and accused the US of faking evidence against him.

Ba'asyir was jailed for four years in September 2003 for immigration offences.

He was also found guilty of subversion, a conviction that was later overturned on appeal.

He was acquitted of a charge of leading Jemaah Islamiah and was never charged in relation to the attacks in Bali which killed 202 people, mostly Australian tourists, in 2002.

The Supreme Court in Jakarta ruled his sentence should be reduced, which could see him released by 30 April, his lawyers said last month.

In March Australia's Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, argued that Ba'asyir should remain in jail because he could incite more violence.