MUSLIM cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has been cleared of involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings, opening the way for the firebrand spiritual leader of regional terror network Jemaah Islamiah to seek compensation for wrongful imprisonment.

In a move that will further outrage relatives of the 88 Australians who died in Bali, Bashir’s lawyer last night warned the 68-year-old might also seek money to make up for lost earnings while in jail.

“Thank God, the truth has finally emerged,” lawyer Mohammed Assegaf said last night after Indonesia’s Supreme Court announced its decision. “Ustad (teacher) Bashir has been cruelly abused. He’s had to endure imprisonment for something he didn’t do — that’s a breach of his human rights.

“Therefore, the Government has two responsibilities — to clear his name and to pay compensation. His name has been cleared with this decision, that is for certain.”

The Supreme Court’s decision to clear Bashir of involvement in the Bali bombings, which claimed the lives of 202 people, and the 2004 attack on the Jakarta Marriott Hotel, in which 14 people died, has angered, but not surprised relatives of victims.

Pat Paltridge, whose 20-year-old son Corey was one of seven players from the Kingsley football club from Western Australia killed in the Bali blasts, said Bashir’s legal win was hard to take. “I was ready for something like this because it just kept dragging on with the sentences that got cut and everything,” she told The Australian last night. “Christmas is an emotional time of year for us without our boy, I already felt really sad today.”

Brian Deegan, whose son Joshua also died in the 2002 bombings, condemned the decision. “People don’t understand, it doesn’t go away,” he said. “The families will find this appalling, a reopening of wounds, a reminder of the tragedy and an interruption to their ability to move forward … for them it has been a horrific rollercoaster.”

Their comments came as the Department of Foreign Affairs warned of potential attacks in Indonesia over Christmas and New Year, just days after a similar statement by the US.

A travel advisory cited a “credible threat” of attacks, possibly on large groups of people, over the holiday period.

Bashir was released from a Jakarta prison in June to wild adulation after serving less than 26 months of a 2 1/2-year sentence imposed n 2004 for terrorism offences, but continued with the Supreme Court appeal in an attempt to prove his innocence.

“He thanks God and says he has glad everything has now been revealed,” son Abdurrohim said late yesterday, speaking for the elderly cleric.

“We welcome this decision with great happiness. Hopefully it can become a signal that for all this time, everything was slander from the enemies of Islam who wanted to destroy the image of Indonesian Muslim preachers.

“We’re pleased the judges have made their decision according to the facts, and have taken into account nothing that was fabricated.”

A Supreme Court spokesman last night confirmed the controversial decision had been reached by a five-judge bench.

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From Page 1 “The appeal has been upheld. It has not been proved that he was involved in the Bali bombings or Marriott bombing,” spokesman Djoko Upoyo said.

Mr Assegaf said his client had yet to decide whether he would claim compensation, but that if he did “it would be based on wrongful imprisonment and lost earnings for the time he was in jail”.

He refused to predict the amount of such a claim but said “everything would be taken into account” in formulating a demand, which would then be submitted to Justice Minister Hamid Awaluddin.

Bashir founded an Islamic boarding school in the central Java village of Ngruki where key Bali bombers were educated, including death row terrorist Amrozi bin Nurhasyim.

He has expressed contempt for victims of the Bali bombers and their families, saying even after his release from jail that the only way the latter could gain solace was by turning to Islam.

He also advised John Howard to convert to Islam to gain God’s forgiveness and avoid going to hell.

Bashir was charged with treason and immigration violations in 2003, but eventually sentenced for 20 months only for providing false identity papers to police.

On his release in 2004 he was immediately rearrested and charged with involvement in the Marriott bombing and with giving his blessing to the Bali bombers.

It was claimed that before they launched their attack in the nightclub district of Kuta, he said to the core group of plotters: “You are the ones in the field — you know best what todo.”

Bashir and Amrozi claimed the conversation never took place.

However, the charges were found proved and Bashir was sentenced to the second jail term.

During his time in Jakarta’s Cipinang facility, his status as a hero figure to Islamists across Indonesia rose, with many going out of their way to visit him and hear him preach.