[JURIST] A three-member panel for the Supreme Court of Indonesia [official website] rejected a radical Islamic leader’s appeal of his conviction on Thursday. Abu Bakar Bashir, religious leader of the southeast-Asian Jemaah Islamiyah militants, had requested judicial review of his June 2011 conviction in relation to his military-style training camp, for which he was facing a 15-year prison sentence. According to the court spokesperson, no new evidence [WP report] was presented in support of Bashir’s appeal and the court “did not find any mistakes or irregularities in the verdicts by the district as well as high court.” Bashir maintains that, although he had violated the state’s firearm law by creating the camp, he was simply following God’s orders in seeking to protect Islam and fellow muslims. The camp brought together a variety of extremist groups from around the Muslim world. It is believed Bashir and the group of radical Islamic militants had been planning attacks on various groups in Indonesia, including foreigners, moderate leaders, and former President Susilo Bambang Ydhoyono.

Bashir’s trial began in February 2011 [JURIST report] in the District Court of South Jakarta. He was convicted of inciting terrorism in connection with the terrorist training camp in May after having pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] the month before. He was suspected of links to al Qaeda [CFR backgrounder; JURIST news archive] and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) [CFR backgrounder], a terrorist group with links to al Qaeda that has been implicated in a number of attacks in Indonesia, including the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing [JURIST news archive] that left more than 200 people dead. In 2006, the Indonesian Supreme Court overturned [JURIST report] Bashir’s conviction on conspiracy charges connecting him with the bombings. He was released from prison [JURIST report] earlier in 2006 after spending 26 months in jail on different charges related to the bombings.