Australia PM: release of Bashir 'gut-wrenching'

Australia's prime minister said release of Abu Bakar Bashir, a convicted firebrand cleric who inspired Bali bombers and or violent extremists, was "gut-wrenching." Bashir walked free from an Indonesian prison Friday after completing his sentence for funding training of Islamic terrorists.

"We have always called for those who were involved, t just I as prime minister, my predecessors of all political persuasions, to face tougher, proportionate and just sentences in se cases. Decisions on sentencing though, as we kw, are a matter for Indonesian justice system and we have to respect decisions that y take," Morrison told reporters in Canberra.

2002 bombings on tourist island of Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, including 88 Australians. "That doesn't make it any easier for any Australian to accept that, ultimately. That those who are responsible for murder of Australians would w be free. It's sometimes t a fair world. And that's one of hardest things to deal with," he added.

Police said y would continue to monitor activities of Abu Bakar Bashir, who is w 82 and ailing, and his son said Bashir for w would be avoiding activities outside his family due to coronavirus pandemic. Bashir was imprisoned in 2011 for his links to a militant training camp in religiously conservative Aceh province. He was convicted of funding military-style camp to train Islamic militants and sentenced to 15 years in jail.

Bashir has accumulated 55 months of sentence reductions, which are often granted to prisoners on major holidays, such as Independence Day, religious holiday exemptions and illness, said Rika Aprianti, spokesperson for corrections department at Justice Ministry. slender, white-bearded Bashir, an Indonesian of Yemeni descent, was spiritual leader of al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah network behind 2002 bombings. 

(Im Credits: AP)