Bali bomber gets life, Makassar bombers 7-12 years
Wahyoe Boediwardhana and Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar/Makasssar
A fifth suspect in last year's Bali bombings, Utomo Pamungkas, alias Mubarok, received a life sentence on Thursday for planning, conspiring and executing acts of terrorism.
A panel of judges at the Denpasar District Court said in its verdict that the evidence, witness testimony and the defendant's own confession pointed to his key role in the Oct. 12, 2002, bombings that claimed 202 lives.
The judges said Mubarok was present at an August 2002 meeting held in the home of Hernianto, who was convicted earlier for the bombings, to plot the attack. The meeting took place in the Central Java town of Surakarta.
The convicted mastermind of the attacks, Ali Gufron, used Mubarok's bank account to transfer a large sum of money to another Bali bomber, Amrozi. This money was later used to purchase explosives.
"We find the defendant to be guilty of involvement in the planning and execution of acts of terrorism," presiding judge I Nengah Suriada read when delivering the court's verdict.
The prosecutors had requested a life sentence for the suspect.
Three other Bali bombers -- Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, Abdul Aziz, alias Imam Samudra, and Ali Gufron -- have been sentenced to death. Another suspect, Ali Imron, was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Both Mubarok and Imron were arrested on Jan. 13, 2003, in a house on the isolated island of Berukang in East Kalimantan.
Mubarok was also implicated in the Christmas Eve bombing of a church in Mojokerto, East Java, in 2000.
Under the country's new antiterrorism law, planning and executing terrorist attacks are punishable by death. The court spared Mubarok from the firing squad because he was respectful throughout his trial, confessed his crime and expressed regret for his actions.
The defendant admitted to being a member of the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) militant group and fighting Soviet occupation in Afghanistan. He also told officers that he sent arms and explosives to Poso in Central Sulawesi and Ambon in Maluku, both areas the scene of religious violence.
JI has been blamed for a series of bombings in the country and has been included on the United Nations list of terrorist organizations for its links with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
Mubarok said he needed time to consider whether to appeal the verdict.
Immediately after the judges ended the trial, Australian Jan Laczynski rose and shouted his gratitude to the judges for the sentence.
In a separate trial, Firmansyah was sentenced to four years in prison for helping Mubarok and Imron evade the law. The sentence was three years lighter than the punishment being sought by prosecutors.
The court is next week scheduled to deliver a verdict in the trial of Muhajir, the last in the first batch of 29 Bali bombing suspects to go on trial. The trials of the second batch of four suspects will begin at the end of October.
Separately, the Makassar District Court handed five people jail sentences of between seven years and 12 years for their roles in last December's bombings of a McDonald's outlet and a car dealership in South Sulawesi. Three people died in the bombings.
The court jailed Masnur bin Abdul Latif to 12 years, Usman Nuraffan, Anton bin Labbase and Ilham Riadi to eight years each, and Lukman bin Husain to seven years.
A panel of judges said Masnur was guilty of assisting in an act of terrorism by ordering his employees to built a container to be used in the bombings on Dec. 5, 2002.
They also said the defendant was guilty of the illegal possession of explosives and arms.
In a separate courtroom, judges said Ilham and Anton helped the bombers by providing explosives and by failing to inform the authorities of terrorist activities.
Of the 16 suspects on trial for the bombings, 10 have so far been jailed. Three other suspects are still at large, including the alleged mastermind of the bombings, Agung Abdul Hamid.