Court jails cleric for 7 years over embassy bombing
Court jails cleric for 7 years over embassy bombing
Agence France-Presse, Jakarta
The South Jakarta District Court on Thursday jailed a young Muslim cleric for seven years for helping to assemble the bomb that killed 12 people outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta a year ago.
Heri Sigu Samboja, 23, was found guilty of two counts of terrorism, Chief Judge Asnawati said in the verdict.
She said Heri had carried out a "sinister conspiracy of terrorism" and was guilty of "withholding information on terror attacks."
But Heri was cleared of a primary charge of having directly taken part in the planning of the Sept. 9, 2004 attack with Azahari Husin and Noordin Muhammad Top, two key suspects who are still on the run.
Asnawati said Heri, who taught religion at an Islamic boarding school, had visited Jakarta and conducted surveillance on the embassy before a truck driven by Heri Golun exploded outside the building.
The judge also said the defendant had helped assemble the bomb that later killed 12 people including the suicide bomber, Golun, and wounded more than 200.
Heri said he would appeal and maintained his innocence.
"It would be haram (sinful under Islam) for me to accept this verdict. Let the judgment in heaven decide ... all has been arranged by the All-Knowing Allah," Heri said after the trial.
He has said he did not know that the men he had befriended and helped were Azahari and Noordin since the pair had used aliases and looked younger than the photographs distributed by police.
He claimed that he was a mere "cook" for the pair and had never taken part in preparing the bomb.
Malaysians Azahari and Noordin are also wanted for their key roles in several other attacks including the October 2002 Bali bombings and the bombing of Jakarta's Marriott Hotel in August 2003.
The Bali bombings killed 202 mostly foreign holidaymakers while the Marriott strike left 12 people dead including a Dutch banker. Authorities have blamed the three attacks on Jemaah Islamiyah regional extremist network.
The district court is due to rule next Tuesday on whether a key suspect in the embassy bombing, Iwan Darmawan Mutho alias Rois, should receive the death sentence.