Death sought for another suspect in bomb attack
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Prosecutors demanded the death sentence here on Tuesday for Ahmad Hasan who has been accused of assisting in the 2004 bombing of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, in which 11 people were killed.
The 34-year-old defendant is being tried for abetting Malaysian fugitives Azahari bin Husin and Noordin M. Top in plotting the attack and making the bomb. Azahari and Noordin, who have been linked with Jamaah Islamiyah, were allegedly the masterminds of the attack.
The prosecutors told the South Jakarta Court that Ahmad, a former government official, had been seated in the explosives- laden van used in the attack along with Azahari and suicide bomber Heri Golun.
Ahmad, who had taught the suicide bomber how to drive, and Azahari got out of the van at a bus stop near the Australian Embassy in Kuningan, South Jakarta, before the blast, they added.
"The defendant helped place the bomb in the van that was used for the explosion," prosecutor A. Welang said.
He said that Ahmad drove Azahari on a motorcycle to check out the site one day before carrying out the attack.
Ahmad also bought fertilizers and other chemical substances that would be used by Noordin and Azahari to make the bomb, Welang said.
The prosecutors also accused Ahmad, alias Agung Suntoro, of helping Azahari and Noordin evade police arrest by hiding them in his official residence in Blitar, East Java.
The house was also used to store 30 kilograms of explosive substances belonging to Azahari and Noordin, they added.
Based on his indictment, Ahmad provided his official car as a means of transportation for the two Malaysian fugitives in carrying out their activities.
Welang and two other prosecutors Suntoro and Jeffry Wae said Ahmad was charged with violating articles 14, 13 and 6 of the Antiterror Law, which carries the maximum death sentence.
The prosecutors made the decision as the defendant never expressed regret over what he had done and refused to cooperate in giving information during the trial, Welang said.
As he was escorted back to his cell after Tuesday's trial, Ahmad shouted out, in reference to the indictment, "This is mere fabrication".
Previously, prosecutors demanded that the same court sentence to death another suspect in the embassy blast, Irwan Darmawan alias Rois.
Two of the six Australian Embassy bombing suspects have already been sentenced to between three-and-a-half and four-and-a-half years in prison.
The police have blamed the attack on Jamaah Islamiyah, which has also been linked to the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people and the 2003 blast at Jakarta's J.W. Marriott hotel that killed 12 people.
More than 20 people have been detained in connection with the embassy bombing but a massive manhunt is still under way for Azahari and Noordin.