Makassar, Bali terror accomplices get jail sentences
Wahyoe Boediwardhana and Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar/Makassar
Denpasar and Makassar district courts sentenced three accomplices of terror attacks in separate trials on Thursday.
Also on Thursday, a remorseful Ali Imron, sentenced to life in prison last week for helping plot and execute attacks on Bali in October last year, has decided not to appeal against the verdict.
In the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar, the Makassar District Court sentenced defendant Imal Hamid to six years in prison for his role in the bombing of a McDonald's restaurant and NV Hadji Kalla car showroom there last December.
Presiding judge Siti Muzainah said that Imal was found guilty under the antiterrorism law of concealing information related to the terrorist act that had killed three people and injured dozens of others. The jail sentence was below the 10-year jail term demanded by the prosecutor.
In her verdict, Muzainah said that Imal had failed to report to security authorities about explosive materials stored at his house in Garessi village, Barru regency, South Sulawesi.
The materials were stored in the house's toilet by his elder brother, Agung Abdul Hamid, the main suspect in the McDonald's bombing. Agung is still at large.
Muzainah said that Imal knew that the materials were used to detonate the bomb at the McDonald's outlet in Makassar, but he never reported the fact to the police.
Upon hearing the verdict, Imal said he would file an appeal, insisting that he did not know that the materials were explosives.
The 35-year-old Imal is the second among 16 suspects charged with links to the Dec. 5, 2002 bombings of the McDonald's outlet and NV Hadji Kalla car showroom.
Last month, the Makassar District Court sentenced another bomb accomplice, Suryadi, to seven years in jail for illegally storing weapons and hiding some of the bomb suspects.
In separate trials at the Makassar District Court, prosecutors demanded that four other accomplices in the McDonald's blast be sentenced to between five and 20 years in prison. They were Hamid Razzaq (the father of Agung Abdul Hamid), Ilham Riadi, Masnur bin Abdul Latif and Anton bin Labasse.
Meanwhile, in Bali, the Denpasar District Court sentenced two Bali bombing accomplices to four and six years in jail for their roles in the October Bali bombings last year that killed more than 200 people, mostly foreign tourists.
The court found that the two defendants, Ahmad Budi Wibowo and Herlambang, were guilty of violating the antiterrorism law by assisting and harboring suspects involved in the deadly bombings of two nightspots in Kuta.
Presiding judge Nyoman Gede Wirya said that Wibowo was found guilty of harboring Hernianto, another suspect in the Bali bombings.
In a separate trial, the same district court also found that Herlambang was guilty of helping Mukhlas, a main defendant in the Bali bombings, and Hernianto to find a house to rent. This house was used by the two terrorist suspects to hide from authorities in the aftermath of the Bali attacks.
Indonesian police have detained more than 30 people, including several key suspects, in connection with the Bali bombings.
Wibowo and Herlambang are the latest defendants in the Bali case to be convicted. Previously, the Denpasar district court has handed down verdicts to several defendants, including two main defendants, Amrozi and Imam Samudra, who were sentenced to death.
In a separate development, convicted Bali bomber Ali Imron said that he would not appeal a life sentence handed to him last week, saying that he accepted the verdict whole-heartedly.