Blast accomplice gets seven-years term

Blast accomplice gets seven-years term

Urip Hudiono, Jakarta

A judicial panel of the South Jakarta District Court sentenced
defendant Muhammad Rais on Tuesday to seven years imprisonment
for being an accessory in the bombing of the JW Marriott Hotel in
South Jakarta on Aug. 5, 2003.

The sentence appeared light compared to the prosecutor's
recommendation of a 10-year jail term.

In their verdict, the judges ruled that the 29-year-old Rais
was guilty of helping two main suspects who are still at large,
Dr. Azahari bin Husin and Noordin M. Top, to gather, store and
transport the explosive materials that caused the explosion.

The blast ripped through the hotel, killing 12 people and
injuring 147 others. The victims were mostly Indonesians,
including six drivers, and a Dutch banker.

"The defendant has violated Article 15 of Law No.15/2003 on
terrorism by assisting and facilitating the perpetrators of an
act of terrorism to commit their crime," said presiding judge
Johannes Eter Binti.

The judges also found Rais, who has six aliases, including Edi
Indra, guilty of violating Article 55 of the Criminal Code by
deliberately forging official state documents.

Rais, who was born in Dumai, Riau province, had asked a
Bengkulu district head to issue him with an identity card under
the name Ryan Arifin to help him elude capture by the police.

Rais, who went to Islamic schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan,
is also on the Malaysian police's wanted list for allegedly being
a member of Jamaah Islamiyah, a UN-listed terrorist group.

The court, however, concluded that Rais had not been proven to
have violated the antiterrorism law by organizing acts of terror
that had caused public fear and destruction of vital objects.

"His act of introducing Asmar Latin Sani to Azahari and
Noordin has not been proven to be direct involvement in the
planning of the Marriott bombing," Judge Johannes said. "In
addition, the defendant was already in the custody of the
Bengkulu police when the blast took place."

Asmar, who was killed when the bomb exploded, was asked by
Azahari and Noordin to carry out the blast by driving a rented
Toyota Kijang van packed with explosives to the front entrance of
the Marriott hotel.

Upon hearing the verdict, both prosecutor Andi Herman and
Rais' lawyer Mohammad Toha requested time to consider whether
they would accept the verdict or file an appeal.

Rais himself was immediately ushered away by guards from the
prosecutor's office to the court's detention cells after the
trial, and refused to comment on the verdict apart from saying he
would respect it.

Rais is the second Marriott bombing suspect to be convicted
after Sardona Siliwangi, who was sentenced in February to 10
years in prison by the Bengkulu District Court. Sardona was found
guilty by the court of storing the explosive materials that were
later used to make the bomb.