Two Bali bombers get jail terms

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Fri, 09/08/2006 7:40 AM

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Denpasar District Court sentenced two men on Thursday to eight and 18 years in prison respectively for their roles in last year's Bali restaurant bombings.

Muhammad Cholily, 28, was found guilty of assembling bombs used in the Oct. 1, 2005, attacks. Calling his 18-year sentence ""the sweetest birthday gift"", Cholily smiled and gave the thumbs-up after getting the sentence, which was three years longer than had been recommended by prosecutors. He was born on Sept. 8.

""In the eyes of Allah there is no guilty person,"" Cholily said as quoted by AFP.

Three suicide bombers blew themselves up at three restaurants on the resort island, killing 20 people.

The October 2005 attacks were a huge blow to the island, which was already struggling to recover from bombings three years before that left 202 people dead.

The court also jailed Dwi Widiarto for eight years for transferring footage on a camcorder showing fugitive terror mastermind Noordin M. Top making a fiery speech.

""The defendant knew that Noordin Top ... was a fugitive from law wanted by Indonesian police,"" judge Wayan Yasa Abadi was quoted by Reuters as saying. Widiarto has admitted in court he had advance knowledge of the attacks.

Cholily learned his deadly craft from the late master Malaysian bomb-maker Azahari Husin, and judge Gusti Ngurah Astawa said the accused was a ""dangerous"" man who deserved a stiff prison sentence.

""The crime of this defendant increased fear, particularly in Bali and generally across Indonesia. It ruined tourism in Bali and Indonesia. It was an extraordinary crime -- and a crime against humanity.""

But the judge said he had refrained from handing down an even longer prison term for Cholily, who was found guilty of supplying the equipment used in the attacks, because the bomb-maker had admitted his crime.

Cholily was arrested last year with a backpack bomb that he was believed to be delivering to militants from the group of Noordin, who along with the late Azahari was considered to be the mastermind of the 2005 attacks.

His lawyer Mujito Rahman denied that parts Cholily was found to have were to be used in the bombings.

In a separate hearing in another court in Denpasar, Widiarto got eight years after being found guilty of helping transfer a recording of Noordin threatening Western nations.

""It is too long, far too long,"" Widiarto said of his sentence as he was escorted from the courtroom. But the court judge said he was ""convincingly guilty of having taken part in terrorism"".

The verdicts came just two days after another man, Abdul Aziz, was given eight years for his role in the 2005 bombings. A verdict is still awaited over another suspect.

Attacks have been blamed on the al-Qaeda-linked Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) network, though some militants -- including Azahari and Noordin -- were believed to have split and formed an even more hardline group.

Azahari was killed in a police raid on his hideout in East Java last November but Noordin remains on the run. He has narrowly escaped police several times.

-- Luh Putu Trisna Wahyuni contributed to this story from Denpasar, Bali.

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