Just days after the President said Bashir, the spiritual leader of the 2002 Bali bombers, could be released from jail this week, Widodo on Tuesday placed significant obstacles in the path of that release taking place.

The President said humanitarian reasons – Bashir is 81, and in poor health – were behind his decision to consider the cleric's release and that his government had discussed the release in 2018.

But in a hardening of his position, he spelled out conditions that would have to be met first.

"There is a legal system, a legal mechanism that we need to take. [If] I am asked to crash through [the legal system] I won’t, more over it is about a basic thing: loyalty to the unitary state of Indonesia, loyalty to Pancasila. It’s very basic."

Those comments signal that Bashir's release is now unlikely, given that presidential legal adviser Yusril Ihza Mahendra and the cleric's lawyers have indicated he is unwilling to sign up to Indonesia's Pancasila, or "five principles" state ideology which is a requirement for him to be granted parole.

Pancasila promotes religious and political pluralism and tolerance. However, Bashir has reportedly indicated he is only loyal to the principles of Islam and that he believes Pancasila and Islam are incompatible.

Widodo's comments come less than 24 hours after Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Wiranto announced at a hastily called news conference late on Monday evening that the President had asked him to coordinate a review of all aspects of the planned release – the first clear sign that the administration was backing away from the release.

Like Widodo, Wiranto said that Bashir should agree to to the principles of Pancasila.

The prospect of Bashir being granted a pardon also now appears to have been ditched, and no indication has been given by the government of how long the review of the case will take, either.

The apparent backflip comes amid a growing realisation among the President's political allies that the release of Bashir could cost Widodo support from moderate Muslim and non-Muslim voters.

Sidney Jones, the director of the Jakarta-based Institute of Policy Analysis of Conflict, said Widodo's government appeared to be in disarray over the release and that it was clear the Indonesian security establishment and members of the President's own party were pushing back.

"It doesn’t look like Bashir will sign onto the principles of Pancasila. It looks like the President wasn't paying attention to what his legal adviser was saying last Thursday," she said.

"Now he [Widodo] looks like he is back pedalling. The domestic backlash was so high that it forced this back down, both from the members of the security side of [Widodo's] government but also from the political party side."

Bashir's release was first flagged last Friday by Yusril – who is also a former Justice Minister – and then confirmed by the President. It has drawn strong domestic and international criticism, including from Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison who said Australia would "obviously be very disappointed" if the early release went ahead.

In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age before the President's comments on Tuesday, Yusril said that "suddenly Wiranto made a statement, I don't know what happened".

"Now Wiranto is not talking only about the legal matter, but also ideology, political considerations. I say this is purely a legal [matter]. To release someone from prison is purely a legal [matter], [there should be] no considerations like ideology or political considerations," he said.

"My job is finished, Bashir should've been released, but since it has caused a polemic everywhere, this is not my fault, it is the fault of the people who created the polemic."

Bashir was the spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiah extremist group. Bombers loyal to him attacked nightclubs on Bali in 2002, killing 202 people, including 88 Australians, and he was later sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2011 for inciting terrorism and financing an Aceh-based terrorist cell.

He has served nine years of his 15-year sentence and on Saturday, Yusril claimed he would be released with no conditions in place, such as a ban on him returning to preaching.