Denpasar court sentences Bali Bomb collaborator to 15 years

A court in Denpasar has sentenced a collaborator in the 2005 Bali Bombings, to 15 years in jail. Three other terrorists have already been sentenced to between 8 and 18 years in the triple suicide blasts, which killed 20 people and injured more than 100 others.

Anif Solcahnudin was accused of taking part in the planning of the attacks. Solcahnudin, 24, told an earlier session of his trial that he offered to be one of the suicide bombers, but was turned down. Imagine applying to be a suicide bomber, and being rejected! You’re already suicidal and then you get told you’re not good enough for that.

The blasts were the latest in yearly attacks against Western targets in Indonesia since 2002, when militants blew up two nightclubs on Bali, killing 202 people, most of them foreign tourists. Indonesian police blame fugitive Malaysian Noordin Mohammad Top for masterminding all the attacks.

The judge said Solchanudin was “proven without doubt to have participated in acts of terrorism”.

Indonesia is going after these guys, and getting them off the street is better than nothing.