Men on trial for hiding terrorist suspects

Wahyoe Boediwardhana The Jakarta Post Denpasar, Bali

The Denpasar District Court on Monday commenced the trial of two people charged with hiding key suspects in the Bali bombings while they were fugitives.

Prosecutors said in their indictment that defendants Heri Hafidin and Ahmad Roichan harbored and withheld information on known and wanted terrorist suspects.

The charges carry a maximum 15-year jail sentence under Law No. 15/2003 on antiterrorism.

Prosecutor Made Jaya Ardana disclosed that on Nov. 11 and Nov. 12, 2002, one month after the bloody Bali bombings that killed 202 people, Hafidin picked up his high school classmate, Imam Samudra, in Leui Panjang bus terminal in Bandung, drove him to Serang, Banten and rented house there.

"The defendant knew that Samudra was a wanted fugitive but he deliberately did not notify authorities, he is being charged with harboring criminal and for withholding information," Jaya Ardana told the court presided over by Nurul Hasanah.

At one point, according to the prosecutor, Samudra told Hafidin about his involvement in the bombings.

Samudra has been sentenced to death for his role in the bomb attack.

In a separate trial, prosecutor Ketut Eka Swara told the court how the defendant Ahmad Roichan helped Ali Gufron, alias Mukhlas, evade police in the weeks after the bombings.

The prosecutor said that on Oct. 17, 2002, five days after the bombings, the defendant and Mukhlas attended a meeting in Tawangmangu, Surakarta, to discuss, the performance of the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) network, and necessary arrangements to find a hide-out for Ali Gufron.

Both Roichan and Mukhlas, has been sentenced to death, are JI members and first met in Afghanistan in 1984.

"In the same month, the defendant harbored Ali Gufron in a house at the village of Sayangan Kulon, Laweyan, Surakarta," Eka Swara said.

Moreover, the police also seized 193 live rounds of ammunition of various calibers from the defendant.

"Thus, we also charge the defendant with illegal possession of firearms and explosives," he said. The crime carries a maximum penalty of death according to the Emergency Law No. 12/1951,

Both Samudra and Mukhlas have appealed their death sentences, as has the other key convict on death row, Amrozi.

All 29 defendants were convicted with the majority receiving prison sentences of between three years and life imprisonment.

The trials of remaining suspects Abdul Ghoni, alias Umar and Wayan, and Syawad, alias Sarjiyo, will start next week.