# Third time lucky



## QC (Jun 16, 2011)

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...15-years-in-jail/story-e6frg6so-1226076685966

BASHIR FOUND GUILTY ON TERRORISM CHARGES
ABU Bakar Bashir, the veteran Indonesian jihadist who was ultimately cleared of conspiring in the 2002 Bali bombings, has been convicted on new terrorism charges and sentenced to 15 years in jail.

Bashir will appeal against his conviction -- but if his lawyers fail, the 72-year-old preacher might spend the rest of his life behind bars.

The country's best-known Islamic radical immediately rejected the verdict, blaming the US and Australia for seeking to "eliminate me from Indonesia".

"The troublemakers are these two, the enemies of Allah," he said. "They try to eliminate me from Indonesia because they are the ones who started the Crusader wars."

The October 2002 bombing in Kuta cost 88 of the 110 Australian lives lost to terrorist violence in the decade; reflecting Australian belief in Bashir's culpability, Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd welcomed the verdict.


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"The Australian government hopes this conviction brings some measure of justice to the families of the victims," he said.

Bashir faced seven charges, the prosecution alleging he authorised, funded and gave directions to a militant training camp near Jantho, northern Aceh, operating under al-Qa'ida in Aceh.

The camp was broken up by police in February last year, before the militants were able to launch any action. About a dozen terror suspects died in subsequent clashes, and three policemen were killed in retaliation.

The cleric, who led the Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid group aiming to bring Indonesia under sharia law, was arrested last August.

Under heavy security in South Jakarta district court yesterday, chief judge Herri Swantoro found Bashir "planned and/or encouraged other people intentionally to use violence or threats of violence to create terror and fear among the people and cause victims".

Taking into account his advanced age but noting he had stood against the Indonesian government's campaign to overcome terrorist violence, the four judges sentenced Bashir to 15 years' imprisonment.

Bashir rejected the judgment: "This verdict is unfair because this is based on laws that are made by infidels, not based on sharia."

In the court complex, guarded by about 3000 armed officers, roughly 300 Bashir followers chanted "God is Great" and "Densus is anathema", a reference to the police counter-terrorism taskforce Densus 88.

The sentence was lighter than the life term sought by the prosecutors -- allowing for normal remissions, Bashir could expect to serve about eight years.

His conviction yesterday raises the risk of retaliatory violence, particularly against police who have been the targets of a new wave of small-scale attacks focused on the authority of the Indonesian government.

However, most analysts doubt the jailing will alter the currents of jihadist violence because Bashir's influence among Indonesia's active militants has waned over recent years.

"The actions we see taking place today are probably not in any way directed by Bashir, although inspired by the same ideology he propounds," said the International Crisis Group's Asian terrorism expert, Sidney Jones.

"I don't particularly see his influence being enhanced in any way by prison," she said.


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## SpitfireV (Jun 16, 2011)

Now that's good news.


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## QC (Jun 16, 2011)

With that sentence, pending appeal he'll hopefully die inside. For the first time he wasn't smiling.


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## x SF med (Jun 16, 2011)

Have you ever noticed that these guys preach Sharia Law... until it would be to their detriment since there are no appeals once the mullah has spoken?

Fuckstick should have his hands cut off then put in a cell with 20 women who have been abused , crippled, scarred or raped by a muslim man (be it father, mullah, brother or random muslim who thought she needed it)....


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