Two more Makassar bombers jailed
Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Makassar, South Sulawesi
The Makassar District Court in South Sulawesi sentenced on Monday two accomplices of last year's bombing in the city, that killed three people, to three-and-half-years in prison.
The panel of judges found the defendants guilty of assisting convicted-bomber Anton bin Labasse, while he was a fugitive. Anton had earlier been imprisoned for eight years by the same court.
Judge Muhammad Adnan, who presided over the trial, said both Syaifullah Amir, alias Imam Nawawi, and Muhammad Amir, alias Exel, had helped Anton evade the police at their house in Pare- pare, about 150 kilometers south of Makassar.
Anton had been in a state of panic, following the arrest of other perpetrators of the attack on a U.S.-franchised McDonald fast food outlet on Dec. 5, 2002.
The blast killed three people, including a suspected bomber, and injured 15 others.
A nearby car dealership, owned by Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla, had been bombed on the same day.
"Anton even entrusted an address book, a savings book and a cellular phone to the two defendants," Adnan said.
"Instead of informing the police of Anton's whereabouts, the defendants had planned to move him to a safer place in Mangkutana area in Pare-pare," he added.
Adnan explained that their actions were a violation of Article 13 of Government Regulation in lieu of Law No. 1/2003 and Law No. 15/2003 on terrorism.
Upon hearing their verdicts, both Syaifullah and Amir said they would appeal, denying that they had known Anton was wanted by the police.
The sentence was more lenient than the seven years in prison sought by prosecutors for the defendants, who, like Anton, were allegedly members of Laskar Jundullah, a little known militant group.
Police earlier said that some of the suspects had ties with the regional Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist network, which was blamed for the Bali bombings on Oct. 12 last year, in which 202 people were killed.
The court had earlier sentenced 13 other defendants in the Makassar bombing case to between two years and 20 years in prison.