October 26, 2011
An Indonesian court cut the jail term of radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, a vocal advocate of violent jihad convicted of funding terrorism, from 15 years to nine, a spokesman said on Wednesday.
Bashir is regarded as a spiritual leader of militant Islam in Indonesia and is an outspoken supporter of Al-Qaeda-style jihad, but the 73-year-old has always denied being a terrorist.
“The chief judge verbally confirmed that Bashir’s sentence has been reduced to nine years,” the Jakarta High Court spokesman Ahmad Sobari told AFP, without elaborating.
Detik.com news Web site said the ruling was made on October 20, but the spokesman told the Jakarta Globe separately that the ruling had yet to be signed.
He was jailed in June for funding a terrorist group that was planning attacks against Westerners and political leaders in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.
Bashir’s lawyer Mohammad Assegaf said he was confident his client will eventually be released from prison.
“We’re very optimistic that the Supreme Court will find him not guilty from all terrorism charges. It has happened before,” he told AFP.
The bespectacled cleric served almost 26 months behind bars for conspiracy over the Bali bombings that killed 202 mainly Western tourists, including 88 Australians.
But that conviction was overturned in the Supreme Court after his release in 2006 and other allegations of terrorism — including suspected roles in deadly bombings in 2000 and 2003 — have never been upheld in court.
Indonesia has been rocked by a series of attacks staged by the regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah in recent years.
AFP, JG
(Huhh?, and back on "vrije voeten" just before Ramadan 2012? This is turning into a farce! siK)
wo 26 okt 2011 - 16:46