24 July 2004	Saturday	06 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

JAKARTA, July 23: A top Indonesian court ruled on Friday that an anti-terror law used to convict the Bali bombers violated the constitution, a decision which could open the way for fresh appeals by jailed extremists.

A senior justice ministry official said the constitutional court's ruling does not overturn the convictions of the Al-Qaeda-linked militants behind the nightclub bombings which killed 202 people on the holiday island.

But one of the lawyers who brought the test case, Wirawan Adnan, said it provides new grounds for appeals by convicted Bali bombers who face a firing squad, as well as by lower-level players.

He said lawyers would seek a judicial review of all appeals rejected by the supreme court, including those of Amrozi and Imam Samudra, after the constitutional court ruled that the retroactive anti-terror law is unconstitutional.

"We will also file appeals to all cases which have been decided in the district courts, by using the same argument," Adnan told AFP. Amrozi and Samudra, along with a man called Mukhlas, are under sentence of death for their key roles in the worst terrorist attack since September 11, 2001 in the United States.

The court was considering an appeal by Masykur Abdul Kadir, who was jailed for 15 years for helping the bombers. He claimed a subsidiary law which made the main anti-terror law retroactive - to cover the Bali attack - breaches the constitution.

The judges, by a five to four majority, agreed. "Convictions which have been handed down and which have permanent legal force will still be in force," said Abdul Gani Abdullah, the justice ministry's director general of legislation. "But unfinished cases can no longer use Law No. 16 (on retroactivity) but must instead use the criminal code." -AFP