Court delays verdict in bombing trial

The Jakarta Post, Bogor

The Cibinong District Court delayed announcing on Monday a verdict in the trial of Omar Abdurahman, 32, the first person to stand trial in the Cimanggis bomb making case.

"This is not a petty crime ... the court needs time to study every aspect of the case and prepare a verdict," presiding judge Eka Budi told the courtroom.

The panel of judges adjourned the trial until Wednesday.

Prosecutors are seeking an eight-year jail sentence for the defendant, a Muslim preacher, charged with storing and assembling bombs at a house on Jl. Bakti ABRI in Sukamaju Baru subdistrict, Cimanggis, Depok municipality.

Police uncovered the case when one of the bombs exploded in the house on March 21, 2004. No one was hurt in the explosion.

Depok prosecutors have filed charges against nine suspects, including a woman, Inggrid Wahyucahyaningsih, 21. She is being charged under the terrorism law for withholding information about a planned terrorist attack.

Prosecutors have charged all of the defendants under the terrorism law and the 1951 emergency law, which carry a maximum penalty of death.

A lawyer for Omar, Erwin Firmansyah, said he thought the judges delayed the announcement of the verdict because of a lack of solid evidence against his client.

He said the evidence produced by prosecutors, including a personal computer, a notebook computer and compact discs found in the house on Jl. Bakti ABRI, had no relevance to the charges against his client.

"Ustadz (an honorary title for a Muslim preacher) was not directly involved with the assembling of the bombs. It is true that Harun (another suspect in the case who is still at large) once asked him for permission to train the members of his religious congregation, but he knew nothing about the training material," Erwin was quoted as saying by Antara.

Omar told the court the members of his religious congregation asked him to stop the training when Harun began to teach them how to assemble bombs. Omar said he halted the training and asked Harun to leave, and claimed that he no more contact with Harun after that incident.

The final hearings of the trials of the eight other defendants in the case are scheduled for later this week.