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November 29, 2006
Indonesia: Islamist Sentenced To 12 Years' Jail
At the District Court in Semerang, Java, an Islamist who gave a gun to an individual who helped the fugitive Noordin Top to escape arrest was given a 12 year sentence. Joko Wibowo alias Abu Sayaf had been one of four people attending trials at separate courtrooms in the Indonesian court, charged under similar indictments.
The news is brought by Associated Press and other sources.
Last week, Subur Sugiarto (alias Abu Mujahid) was given a 12-year sentence for assisting Noordin Top at the same court on November 22. On the same day, another man who assisted Top was also given a six month jail sentence. This man, Ardi Wibowo, may be a relative of Joko Wibowo who was sentenced today.
Malaysian-born Noordin Mohammed Top was the main financier and recruiter for the Islamist terror group Jemaah Islamiyah. With another Malaysian, Azahari bin Husin, Top had masterminded several bombings, including the first Bali bombings of October 12, 2002, in which 202 people died, the Australian Embassy attack in Jakarta on September 9, 2004, in which 11 people died, and the last Bali bombing of October 1, 2005, in which 20 people were killed.
The charges of those who have been on trial in Semarang relate to Top's activities after the last Bali bombing. Top had been able to stay hidden in Indonesia long after the Bali attacks, due to a network of supporters who assisted him. He even produced a video, released on November 17 last year, in which he threatened the West. On the same tape are shown the three young men who carried out the Bali suicide attacks from October, 2005, who were reading out their farewell statements (pictured).
Top narrowly escaped death on April 29, when his hideout at Binangu village near Wonosobo, Central Java, was raided. Two of his "assistants", Jabir and Abdul Hadi, were killed in the raid. This was the last known location of Top, who is still a fugitive. According to the International Crisis Group, Top had built up a substantive terror network. Some analysts assume Top has left Jemaah Islamiyah to st up his own terror group in southeast Asia.
The man who was sentenced today, Joko Wiboyo, was convicted of violating anti-terror laws by giving a semiautomatic pistol to a Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist (33-year old Subur Sugiarto), which had been used in terrorist training.
Earlier this month the court was told by prosecutor Farda Nawawi that "The gun was used at physical training sessions at Mount Ungaran." Mount Ungaran is a 2050 meter high mountain above Semarang.
When Joko Wibowo had been arrested in January, the revolver and thirty bullets had been discovered in his home. Farda Nawawi had urged the court to impose a 20-year sentence upon Wibowo.
The defendant had then claimed that he had got the gun while he had been fighting Christians on the island of Ambon in the Moluccas. Ambon is capital of Malaku province. From 1999 to 2002 this region was the epicenter of the Moluccan War, in which 9,000 (mostly Christian) people were killed.
Prosecutor Farda Nawawi had earlier told the court that the gun had been used in a bank robbery in Central Java province.
25-year old Joko Wibowo is a member of the Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia, or MMI, whose name translates as "Holy Warriors of Indonesia" or Indonesian Mujahideen Council. This group is headed by the cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who was imprisoned for giving his consent to the Bali bombings of 2002. MMI wishes to have Indonesia as an Islamist state, under Sharia law.
During Wibowo's trial, a large contingent of his supporters from MMI have thronged the courtroom. These had chanted "Allahu Akbar" when the indictment had been read out in September, when his trial began. Today, about 30 members of MMI who were in the courtroom again cried out that Allah was great as presiding Judge Boedi Hartono read out Wibowo's sentence.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 29, 2006 8:00 AM
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