Marriott bomber Sardona gets 10 years in prison

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.