Another Bali bomber sentenced to death

Another Bali bomber sentenced to death

Wahyoe Boediwardhana
The Jakarta Post
Denpasar, Bali

Another key defendant in the deadly Bali bombings was sentenced
to death on Thursday, bringing the number of Bali bombers
sentenced to die to three.

The Denpasar District Court passed the verdict on Ali Ghufron,
better known as Mukhlas, after finding him guilty of planning the
attack that killed more than 200 people and injured more than 300
others last October 2002.

"The defendant, Ali Ghufron ... has been legally and
convincingly proven guilty of having, together with others,
planned an act of terrorism and also of being in illegal
possession of explosives," said Judge Cokorda Raka Suamba of the
Denpasar District Court.

"We punish the defendant with the death sentence."

Mukhlas, after consulting his lawyers, said he would appeal
the verdict.

Earlier, the same court sentenced Mukhlas's brother Amrozi and
Abdul Azis alias Imam Samudra to death for their roles in the
deadly attacks. Amrozi purchased the car used in the terrorist
attack, while Imam Samudra was allegedly the field commander of
the bombings.

Judges deemed that Muklas had no positive behavior that could
lighten the verdict.

Instead, he declared himself innocent of his crime that had
killed many people, saying that the bomb attack was an act of
devotion to God.

The judges also said that Mukhlas had participated in a number
of meetings to plan the attack.

He had also channeled US$30,500 and 200,000 baht from another
suspect, Wan Min Wan Mat, to pay the other Bali bombers. Wan Min
is now detained in Malaysia.

Mukhlas himself had claimed that he met Osama bin Laden, the
leader of terrorist network al-Qaeda, when he was in Afghanistan.

After the verdict, Mukhlas shouted three times: "Allahu
Akbar!" (God is greatest).

He immediately appealed to the High Court as he believed the
legal basis of the verdict was not in line with his faith.

"Mukhlas, you will never win," Ashley Stanger, a relative of
an Australian victim from Bendigo, shouted.

In a separate court, judges sentenced Hamzah Baya to six years
for aiding Ali Imron's escape from East Java to East Kalimantan
after the blast.

The sentence imposed on Hamzah, who was known as a member of
the East Kalimantan Group, is less than the prosecutor's demand
of 8.5 years in jail.

With the verdicts against Muchlas and Hamzah, 17 of more than
30 suspected Bali bombers have been punished so far.

The sentences have ranged from death to life in jail and three
years jail.

Ali Imron, who was jailed for life after expressing remorse,
has appealed for a presidential clemency.

Separately, the court in Makassar, the capital of South
Sulawesi, sentenced on Thursday Khaerul, alias Matto, to seven
years in jail for hiding Agung Hamid, a key suspect of the Dec. 5
Makassar bombings, Antara said.

Hamid remains on the run.

The prosecutors have said that Khaerul was residing in a small
village near Poso in the restive district of the same name in
Central Sulawesi when the bombings took place.

They have said the defendant helped hide Hamid in his home
after the bombings.

The report did not say whether Khaerul appealed the sentence,
which was three years lighter than what the prosecutors had
recommended.

Three people -- including the attacker -- were killed in the
bombings that targeted a McDonalds fast food outlet and a car
showroom.

Some 20 suspects are in custody and at least three people have
been jailed for up to seven years for their role in the bombings.

Police have said that some suspects in the Makassar bombings
knew those behind the Bali blasts.

Investigators have blamed the Bali attack on Jemaah Islamiyah,
an al Qaeda-linked regional terror network.