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.