Yunus gets seven years for aiding Bali bomber

Yunus gets seven years for aiding Bali bomber

Wahyoe Boediwardhana and Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post,
Denpasar/Makassar

The Denpasar District Court sentenced on Monday Muhamad Yunus bin
Samijan to seven years for providing helping to hide one of the
Bali bombers and two of his accomplices while they were on the
run.

Presiding judge I Wayan Sugawa said Yunus, a teacher at the
Istiqomah Islamic boarding school in the East Kalimantan capital
of Samarinda, had sheltered convicted Bali bomber Ali Imron and
other suspects Hamsyah Baya and Utomo Pamungkas alias Mubarok in
several places after the Bali blasts which killed 202 people in
October last year.

Prosecutors had demanded 10 years in jail for the 39-year-old
man, who becomes the 17th person convicted in the bomb attacks.
There are 12 other suspects standing trial for their role in the
bombings.

Imron was sentenced to life, while his fellow key defendants
-- Amrozi, Abdul Aziz alias Imam Samudra and Ali Gufron alias
Mukhlas -- were given death sentences.

The panel of judges said in their verdict that Yunus had
hampered the investigation into the Bali bombings and defied the
government's efforts to combat terrorism.

The defendant's act, the judges said, could spread anxiety
among Indonesian people, particularly Balinese, who bore the
brunt of the terror attacks as they severely battered tourism on
the island and its economy.

Thousands of hotel and company employees in Bali were laid off
due to the economic slump following the bombings.

The judges concluded that Yunus violated Article 13b of the
Law No. 15/2003 on antiterrorism law and Article 2 of the Law No.
16/2003 on the implementation of the antiterrorism law in the
Bali bombings.

The judges said Yunus was proven guilty of keeping the three
people inside his boarding school, before moving them to a forest
and afterwards in a hut belonging to Muhajir in the East
Kalimantan district of Tanjung Berukang, where they were captured
by the police on Jan. 13 this year.

Separately in Makassar, the local district court sentenced
Suryadi Mas'ud alias Anthoni Salim to eight years in jail for his
role in the bombing of a McDonald's fastfood outlet and a car
showroom in the South Sulawesi capital city in November last
year.

The sentence was nine years lighter than the prosecutors'
demand of 17 years in jail.

In their verdict, the panel of judges said the defendant was
proven guilty of violating the antiterrorism law for assembling
10 bombs, two of which were purposely detonated in the two public
places, leaving three innocent civilians dead and 15 others
injured.

They said, however, that the prosecutors failed to prove the
main charge that the defendant was directly involved in the
bombings.

"The defendant only assisted the main suspect by assembling
the bombs," presiding judge Muhammad Adnan concluded.

The bombs were assembled on Oct. 14 with the assistance of two
other bombers, Dahlan and Usman, in the house of main suspect
Agung Abdul Hamid, who remains at large.

The judges said Suryadi also attended a meeting with Agung,
Muchtar Daeng Lau, Anton bin Labbase, Hisbullah Rasyid and Ilham
Riadi, to plan the terror attacks and call for a boycott of
American products.

During the meeting they also expressed discontent with a peace
pact that put an end to 3 years of Muslim-Christian conflicts in
Maluku and Central Sulawesi, where nearly 10,000 people were
reportedly killed. The peace agreement was brokered by
Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla, whose
family owns the car showroom that they tried to blow up.

Suryadi screamed wildly that "God is Great" several times upon
hearing the verdict. It is believed he is a follower of the
Islamic faith.

"The trial has been staged by the police. I'm not guilty nor
was I involved in the case," Suryadi shouted as he left the
courtroom under police guard. Despite claiming no involvement, he
then added that he would prefer the death sentence.

Chief prosecutor Agus Salim asked for time to respond, saying
he believed the defendant was directly involved in the bombings.