INDONESIA: An Indonesian Islamist cleric widely regarded as a regional terrorist leader was convicted yesterday of taking part in the "evil conspiracy" of the 2002 Bali bombing and was jailed for 30 months.
Abu Bakar Ba'asyir (66) was cleared of seven other terror-related offences, including direct involvement in the bombing and any connection with the 2003 blast at the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta.
The outcome pleased few people. Ba'asyir, his legal team and the hundreds of his supporters who flocked to the court were outraged, one lawyer describing it as a "face-saving political strategy".
Australia and the US, which had pressed Jakarta to prosecute Ba'asyir after he was acquitted of other terrorist offences in 2003, expressed disappointment at the leniency of the sentence.
The five judges ruled that Ba'asyir had approved the bombing which killed 202 people at two night-clubs in October 2002.
"The defendant has been proved legally and convincingly to have committed the crime of evil conspiracy that caused fire that left other people dead," they said in their verdict. "The defendant knew that the perpetrators of the bombing were people trained in bomb-making in Pakistan and Afghanistan."
Ba'asyir responded with a prayer in which he said: "God protect us from evil and its allies." His lawyers said that he would appeal, describing the verdict as legally unsound, as it was based solely on an uncorroborated affidavit by one of the convicted Bali bombers.
The judges noted that many witnesses had described Ba'asyir as the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, the terror network linked to al-Qaeda, but they did not rule on this.
Australia's foreign minister Alexander Downer said: "We'd have liked a longer sentence. He has, without any doubt, been a spiritual inspiration to Jemaah Islamiyah in Indonesia, and Jemaah Islamiyah is linked with al-Qaeda and other terrorist networks."
A US embassy spokesman said: "We respect the independence and judgment of the Indonesian courts, but given the gravity of the charge on which he was convicted, we're disappointed at the length of the sentence."
Many supporters of Ba'asyir raised their fists and screamed "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) when the verdict was delivered. As he was led away, wearing a white cap and with a white shawl around his shoulders, Ba'asyir smiled. Outside, his supporters waved banners and shouted anti-American, anti-Jewish and anti-Christian slogans. Some carried a picture of the US president with the eyes cut out and the caption: "Drag and hang Bush!"