Marriott bomber Sardona gets 10 years in prison

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A panel of judges at Bengkulu district court sentenced on Thursday defendant Sardona Siliwangi, 23, to 10 years in jail for his role in the Marriott bombing last year.

In his verdict, presiding judge Aljaman Sutopo said that Sardona was proven guilty of accepting and storing explosives to perpetrate an act of terrorism, which was a violation of the Law on Terrorism 2003. The verdict was five years less than that demanded by the prosecutor.

The judge said that the defendant was known to have stored the explosives in Bengkulu for three months in his house, before they were taken by Asmar Latin Sani to Jakarta for the bombing. Asmar, the executor of the Marriott bombing, died in the incident, which took the lives of at least 14 people.

In the trial, the judge also rejected an argument by the defendant's lawyer that Sardona had no idea what was inside six cartons entrusted to him in Bengkulu by Asmar, a few months before the bombing in August.

The defendant must have known that the cartons contained explosive materials, the judge asserted.

The judge said that the defendant had seen black powder when Dr. Azhari and Noordin Mohd. Top opened the boxes, and the defendant should have been suspicious of that.

Azhari and Noordin, the main suspects in the bombing, are still at large.

Warnings by Asmar and Noordin that Sardona should keep the cartons well away from heat sources should also have raised his suspicions.

"Based on our findings, we concluded that the defendant Sardona should have known that the boxes contained explosive materials," the judge said, as quoted by Antara news agency.

The JW Marriott blast was the first major bombing to have hit the country after bombs ripped through Sari Club and Paddy's bar in the packed tourist resort of Kuta, Bali, in October 2002, killing 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, and injuring 300 others.

Separately, Medan district court opened a trial on bombings four years ago on three churches in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra. The first hearing on Thursday presented defendant Awaluddin Sitorus.

In his indictment, prosecutor Usman said that the bombing began when the defendant was called by Hambali, a regional terror suspect, in 1999.

Hambali told defendant Awaluddin that his two friends, Faiz Abu Bakar Bafana and Nasrullah, would meet the latter in a restaurant in Tanjung Balai regency, North Sumatra. In the meeting, Faiz, who is now in detention in Malaysia, asked the defendant to mobilize Afghanistan and Moro alumni to perpetrate church bombings in Medan. The defendant OK'd the request, and he and Nasrullah then met Toni Togar in Medan to prepare for the bombing.

Imam Samudra, the main perpetrator in the Bali bombing and already sentenced to death, once met with these people in Medan.

On May 28, 2000, Imam ordered Awaluddin to place a bomb in the HKBP church on Jl. Sudirman, Toni to place a bomb in the GKPI church on Jl. Padang Bulan and Nasrullah to place a bomb in Kristus Raja church on Jl. M.T. Haryono.

Only the GKPI bomb exploded, leaving 23 people injured.

The trial was adjourned until next week to hear the case for the defense.