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September 14, 2006
Indonesia: Islamist Gets 15 Years For 2005 Bali Bomb Plot
The figure at left is Anif Solchanudin, also known as Pendek bin Suyadi (24), a mobile phone salesman, who today was sentenced to 15 years' jail at a court in Denpasar Bali, for his involvement in the bombings on the island on October 1 last year. Three suicide bombers, allied to terror group Jemaah Islamiyah walked into restaurants, one in Kuta square, and two at sea front restaurants at Jimbaran beach. 20 people died in the attacks.
The news of the conviction is carried by several sources, such as Deutsche Presse-Agentur via Monsters & Critics, Associated Press via Santa Barbara Newspress, the Jakarta Post, Agence France-Presse via the International Herald Tribune and the Australian, the Melbourne Age, Reuters AlertNet, the BBC, and the China People's Daily.
Anif Solchanudin and three others had been on trial since May 9. Each had been tried in separate courtrooms. On September 5, 30 year old Abdul Aziz, a computer teacher, was sentenced to eight years in jail. He had given shelter to leading figure in Jemaah Islamiyah, Noordin Top, who had helped organise and finance the October blasts.
On September 7, Dwi Widiarto, aged 33, Mohammad Cholily, aged 28 were found guilty and sentenced. Cholily was given an 18 year jail sentence. He had helped to assemble the actual bombs used in the Bali blasts, under the supervision of JI's bombmaker, the "demolition man" Azari bin Husin. Cholily had also studied with Noordin Top.
Dwi Widiarto was given an eight year jail sentence. He had assisted in the making of a video of Noordin Top threatening the West, and also a video of the three actual suicide bombers who had carried out the attacks. In that video the three killers made their farewells and "justified" the attacks they were going to make. He transferred the video onto a disc.
Today, a three-judge panel convicted Anif Solchanuddin of the charge of being ""proven without doubt in participating in acts of terrorism". He was also found guilty of delivering bombs to Noordin Top, and also offering to be a suicide bomber when he had heard of the plan to attack Bali again (a previous bombing campaign in October 2002 killed 202 people, including 88 AUstralian and 25 British tourists).
Ketut Wiarta, one of the judges, said: "The defendant never retracted his offer to be a suicide bomber."
Presiding judge Daniel Palittin said: "The defendant... is found convincingly guilty of committing to collaborative acts of terror and of keeping ammunitions and explosives. The defendant is sentenced to 15 years in jail."
For his part, Solchanuddin said: "I accept the verdict and I won't make any further legal step."
During the trial, he had said that he was unaware of any impending attack upon Bali.
Below are photographs of the aftermath of the bombings from October 1, 2005. At least one of these pictures is extremely graphic. You have been warned.
This is a scene from the Kuta restaurant, which was attacked when full of tourists.
This is all that was left that could be recognised of thee three suicide bombers. Though the images are small, their farewell videos can be found in the video on this link.
This is the scene on Jimbaran beach, after forensics experts began to examine the sand for evidence.
The image below is the window of a souvenir shop in Kuta Square, near the restaurant which was hit.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at September 14, 2006 3:36 PM
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