Man sentenced to 21-years jail for attack on embassy

JAKARTA (JP): A 35-year-old man was sentenced on Wednesday to 21 years and four months in jail for hurling a grenade into the Malaysian Embassy compound and illegal possession of a grenade.

Iwan Setiawan, a small-scale entrepreneur, was tried in two separate trials on different charges.

In the first case, he was found guilty of throwing the grenade into the embassy compound in August last year and was sentenced to 15 years in jail.

In the second case, he was sentenced to six years and four months in jail for illegal possession of a grenade, which was found on him when he was arrested by police last September in Cilandak, South Jakarta.

Two other defendants, Saifan Nurdin and M. Mudin, were also tried in connection with the grenade attack on the Malaysian Embassy. They received a sentence of 12 years and six months in jail each.

Iwan sat with his head bowed when presiding judge Sofyan Royan read out the verdict in his first case.

Iwan, in his plea, denied any wrongdoing and said all the charges made against him were fabricated by the police.

He also retracted his statements in his affidavit, saying the police had intimidated him into saying them.

Justice Sofyan said the defendants were found guilty of throwing the grenade into the embassy compound, disrupting national stability and causing public distress.

The fact that the defendants had failed to appear at several hearings was taken by the judges as an aggravating factor in deciding the sentence.

A grenade was thrown at the parking lot of the Malaysian Embassy last year, causing minor damage.

There were no casualties in the incident.

The sentences handed down to the three defendants were lighter than demanded by the prosecutors. The judges said in the verdict that the sentences were lighter as the defendants were young and had families to support.

In a trial in June, the prosecutor demanded a 17-year jail term for Iwan and a 14-year jail term each for Nurdin and Mudin.

Behind bars at the South Jakarta District Court, Mudin regretted the sentence.

"I didn't commit the crimes I have been charged with. I was merely a rental car driver who knew nothing about the incident," he told The Jakarta Post.

One of the defendants' lawyers, Heppi Sebayang, from the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) said the defendants would appeal to a higher court.(06)