Four get 10-year jail term for storing bomb materials

Suherdjoko, Semarang

Four men accused of storing bomb-making materials were each sentenced to 10 years imprisonment by the Semarang District Court on Wednesday.

The four suspects were identified as Machmudi Hariono alias Yoseph Adirima alias Yusuf from Jombang, East Java; Joko Ardiyanto alias Luluk alias Abdullah from Salam, Magelang, Central Java; Siswanto alias Antok from Pati, Central Java; and Suyatno alias Heru Setiawan from Magetan, East Java.

The four defendants objected to the sentence and sought leave to appeal.

One of the defendants, Yusuf, said that 10 years in jail was too much.

"I didn't know they were bomb-making materials. I also object to the fact that they called me a terrorist. I'll demand that I be set free," he said.

The leader of the defendants' defense team, Yasri Yuda Yahya, echoed this sentiment, saying: "The sentence is too harsh. They're not the ones who are responsible for this. Thus, I'll do everything I can to have them set free," said Yasri.

The defendants were reportedly recruited by Mustofa alias Imron, who was found guilty of the Marriott Bombing that took place on October 12, 2002, claiming 12 lives. Imron received a seven-year prison sentence for his role in the bombing.

According to Semarang Police Headquarters, the four suspects were arrested at their rented house between July 8 and July 11, 2003, in Semarang.

The police found 25 sacks of potassium chlorate, each weighing 30 kilograms; 9,000 5.56 milimeter bullets; 1,800 9 milimeter bullets; 910 4.5 milimeter bullets; 21 M-14 bullets; around 1,000 non-electronic detonators; 25 electronic detonators; 65 packages of explosive materials; four boxes of TriNitro Tolluene (TNT); 11 hand-made rockets; a gun; a pistol; and books on how to make bombs.

They were charged under Government Regulation in Lieu of Law No. 1/2002 and Law No. 15/2003 on terrorism.

The defendants pleaded not guilty, saying that they met Imron in December 2002 and accepted the boxes from him without knowing what was inside them.

One of the defendants, Luluk, met Imron in Solo, Central Java, where the former received jihadist religious instruction. He knew that Imron had received military training from the mujahideen in Afghanistan in 1987/1988, and had instructed terrorists at the Al Islami Al Jamaah terrorist training camp in Muaskar Udaibiyah, the Southern Philippines, in the same year.

Luluk was then sent to "Camp Udaibiyah", another terrorist training camp, in the Southern Philippines in July 2001. There, he received military training for four months before coming back to Indonesia in May 2002.

According to the panel of four judges, Luluk also received training in the Philippines on how to make bombs.

The three other defendants also spent between 4 and eight months in terrorist training camps.