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Sonata gets 10-year sentence for roles in Aceh training
The panel of judges at the East Jakarta District Court sentenced Abdullah Sonata to 10 years in prison after finding him guilty of playing multiple roles in the Aceh terrorist training facility
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he panel of judges at the East Jakarta District Court sentenced Abdullah Sonata to 10 years in prison after finding him guilty of playing multiple roles in the Aceh terrorist training facility.
“The panel found convincing evidence of his various roles, starting from becoming the training camp leader, transporting the participants from Jakarta to Aceh, smuggling the weapons into the camp and providing financial assistance as well,” judge Suhartoyo said on Wednesday, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.
During the trial, the panel also found that it was Sonata who had hidden prominent terrorist fugitive Dulmatin while he was at large.
Dulmatin was the one who asked Sofyan Tsauri, a police deserter, to provide the weapons for the training facility in Aceh.
Dulmatin was shot dead at an Internet café in Pamulang, South Tangerang, last year, while Tsauri was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Depok District Court.
Suhartoyo said the only thing that helped Sonata during his trial was that he knew how to behave
properly.
Commenting on the verdict, Achmad Michdan, Sonata’s lawyer, said the panel had been unfair in reviewing his client’s case, as Sonata had revealed to the court that he had never participated in the training.
“I have told the court from the very beginning that my client had participated in none of the training, but apparently the panel opted to ignore this fact. They leave us with no choice but to file an appeal for this case,” Michdan said.
Similar remarks were also made by Fitri, Sonata’s second wife, who assessed that the verdict was biased against her husband and showed unfair treatment.
“There are enough reasons for us to file an appeal of this case to the high court,” Michdan said.
Sonata, who posed as an Arabic language teacher at the Galaxi housing complex in Bekasi while he was a fugitive, was arrested by the police’s antiterror squad, Detachment 88, while he was on a bus from Surakarta to Boyolali in Central Java in June of last year.
From Sonata the police confiscated a small firearm and 50 bullets.
Along with Sonata’s arrest, the police arrested Heri Sigu Samboja alias Soghir, a Sonata loyalist, Medi, Samboja’s father, Agus Mahmudi, Yuli Harsono, a military deserter who was shot dead during the arrest and Bintang Julihardi.
According to several other convicted terrorist inmates, Sonata was the mastermind of the police post attack in Purworejo, Central Java.
A source within the force also revealed that Sonata had planned to attack the Danish Embassy in
Jakarta.
