Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, chief of the Jemaah Islamiah in Indonesia, a radical Muslim underground group linked to the Al Qaeda, was believed to be released from the Cipinang prison on June 14 after serving 30 months in jail.

"I believe Ustdaz (cleric) Abu will be set free without any obstacle in accordance with the Minister of Law and Human Rights' statement that he will be set free soon," Antara news agency on Saturday quoted Mohammad Assegaf, a member of the lawyers team, as saying.

Ba'asyir, 66, was sentenced to 30 months in jail in May 2005 minus the period of his detention.

Ba'asyir was first detained in October 2002 after the bombing of two nightclubs on the island of Bali that killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists. The attacks were blamed by Indonesian investigators on Jemaah Islamiah, and several of its members have admitted that the group was involved.

But Ba'asyir, founder of a religious boarding school in Central Java, at a meeting attended by several leading militants, has repeatedly denied allegations by Indonesian and U.S. officials that he is the spiritual head of the Jemaah Islamiah or that the group even existed.

Source: Xinhua