Cleric suspected of Bali bombing taken from hospital for questioning

Abu Bakar Bashir, the spiritual leader of the Islamic extremist group suspected of carrying out the Bali bombing, was taken out of hospital for questioning by Indonesian police yesterday.

Hundreds of his supporters clashed with police as the radical Muslim cleric was wheeled out of the hospital in Solo, central Java. His brother, Umar Baradja, claimed that police smashed down the door of his hospital room and dragged him out of bed before flying him to Jakarta.

Mr Bashir, who is believed to head the radical Islamist group Jamaah Islamiya, collapsed with apparent respiratory problems 11 days ago after police said they wanted to interview him about a series of bomb attacks in Indonesia in December 2000 and a plot to assassinate the President, Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Mr Bashir has not been arrested in connection with the Bali bombs, but Jamaah Islamiya is widely suspected of planning the explosions.

As authorities prepared to question him, concern mounted that new counter-terrorism measures – adopted after the Bali blasts – could jeopardise the country's fragile transition to democracy. Many fear the crackdown could herald a return to the repressive days of the former dictator General Suharto.

At Cikini market in central Jakarta, 53-year-old Supardi rolled up a threadbare trouser leg to display a calf covered in purple scars. The trader, who also has a long scar on his right cheek, jumped from a moving car after being abducted by General Suharto's security forces during a clash with opposition party supporters in the mid-1990s.

He fears new police powers to arrest and detain terrorist suspects could be used against government opponents. "We fought so long for our freedoms," he said. "We don't want to give them up."

With civilian rule restored four years ago, anything that smacks of authoritarianism is regarded with deep suspicion. Political analysts say the current climate of fear could be exploited by extremist groups and by the military, still smarting from losing most of its powers to the police.

Sidney Jones, a project director in Jakarta at the International Crisis Group, a leading think-tank, warned that the crackdown could destabilise Indonesia. "There is a real fear that the army may be given a prominent role in fighting terrorism," she said.

Ms Jones said there was particular concern that the new regulations could be abused by the military in areas such as Aceh and Papua, both riven by separatist conflicts.

The government has tried to allay anxieties, saying that the regulations are different from anti-subversion laws used to silence General Suharto's critics. Marty Natalegawa, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said they were far less draconian than security laws now in force in Malaysia and Singapore, where terrorist suspects can be held indefinitely without trial.

Rizal Malangareng, a political analyst at the Freedom Institute think-tank, said the main danger facing Indonesia was not authoritarianism but a weak state. "The government seems to have lost its ability even to guarantee people's basic security," he said.

That sentiment is echoed in Jakarta, where there have been 20 bomb explosions over the past two years. "It was better under Suharto," said Hermanto, a taxi driver. "At least it was safe then."