Indonesia clerics press president over Islamic law

JAKARTA, Feb 22 (Reuters) A group of Muslim clerics including Abu Bakar Bashir, who once was jailed for links to the 2002 Bali bombings, were thwarted today in a bid to meet President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono over implementing Islamic law.

The clerics instead left a letter at the presidential palace demanding Yudhoyono introduce strict Islamic sharia laws in Indonesia, the world's biggest Muslim country.

Bashir has been accused by Western and regional intelligence officials of being the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asia militant group blamed for the Bali bombings and a string of other attacks in Indonesia.

''The president could not see us today. Of course, we are disappointed because it is imperative for us to tell him that this country could perish if we do not return to Islam,'' Bashir told reporters. The clerics, who turned up without a scheduled meeting with the president, were met by a junior palace official.

''We warn the president as a Muslim he has the obligation to govern this country and its people using Islamic laws,'' he said.

Yudhoyono has sought to tread a delicate path, avoiding offending Muslim sensibilities without angering the West over what some countries perceive as lenient treatment of Bashir.

Bashir's conviction for conspiracy in the 2002 blasts on the resort island was overturned by the Supreme Court last December months after he was freed after completing his sentence.

That ruling enraged some countries, especially Australia, which lost 88 nationals in the attacks.

Bashir, 68, was released in June after completing 26 months of a 30-month jail sentence for the 2002 Bali bombings.

White-bearded and bespectacled, Bashir has consistently denied any connection to that or other attacks blamed on Jemaah Islamiah.He says that Western governments orchestrated his incarceration because of his campaign for Islamic law in predominantly Muslim Indonesia.

The cleric told Reuters in an interview weeks after his release that he opposed the use of violence in Indonesia for defending Islam but said that tactic could be used in Iraq and the Palestinian territories.

About 85 per cent of Indonesia's 220 million people follow Islam and most of them are moderates, but there is also a radical Islamic fringe that is increasingly vocal.

Aceh on the tip of Sumatra island is the only part of Indonesia allowed to use sharia in its judicial system, part of an autonomy package Jakarta offered to quell separatist passions in the province.

REUTERS BDP ND1546