Bali Bomb II conspirator jailed
Another win for the good guys! That’s the news today from Denpasar District Court, after Bali Bomb II conspirator, Abdul Aziz, was jailed for 8 years. In my view it should be 80 years, or better, an express elevator to the bottom of the Lombok Strait.
Here’s more from the Jakarta Post.
Abdul Aziz gets 8-year prison sentence for 2005 Bali bombings
DENPASAR (AP): Judges sentenced an Islamic militant to eight years in prison Tuesday for harboring the alleged mastermind of last year’s suicide bombings on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali – the first verdict in the terrorist attack.
Abdul Aziz, 30, shouted “God is great!” after the ruling was read in the tightly guarded Denpasar District Court.
Indonesia has been hit by a string of terrorist attacks blamed on members of the al-Qaida linked militant group Jemaah Islamiyah in recent years, the most recent being the Oct. 1, 2005 near simultaneous bombings on three crowded Bali restaurants.
Aziz is one of four men charged in the attacks that killed 20 people and wounded 198 others, all accused of helping hide Southeast Asia’s most wanted terrorist Noordin Top or helping transport explosives.
Verdicts for the other three are expected by next week.
Presiding judge Gede Wirya said Aziz, a computer teacher in Central Java province, met Noordin at least 10 times before the bombings, once allowing him to stay overnight at his high school.
He was also found guilty of setting up a Web site that called on Muslims to wage war against “infidels” and gave step-by-step instructions on how to kill foreigners in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, the judge said.
He said Aziz “committed a gross crime against humanity” through his terrorist actions, while sewing fear in the community and further damaging Bali’s tourism industry, still recovering from 2002 terrorist attacks that left 202 dead.
Noordin was formerly a key member of Jemaah Islamiyah, which has been weakened by scores of arrests in recent years, but security experts say he now appears to be operating independently.
At a separate trial Tuesday on Indonesia’s main island of Java, prosecutors accused Achmad Arif Hermansyah of storing explosives used in a suicide car bomb attack in front of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta on Sept. 9, 2004. The trial in Surabaya was adjourned until Sept. 12.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, has arrested or convicted more than 150 militants since 2002. At least three have been sentenced to death.