Bashir Sentenced to 4-year in Prison

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, September 03, 2003

Bashir Sentenced to 4-year in Prison

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An Indonesian court sentenced Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir on Tuesday to four years in prison for sedition, but threw out charges that he belonged to al-Qaida's main Asian ally -- even though some of Southeast Asia's top terror suspects have named him as the group's spiritual leader.

The trial was seen as a key test of Indonesia's commitment to confronting Islamic militancy, and the mixed result and lenient sentence was a blow to Indonesia's efforts to combat terrorism.

Judges said there was insufficient evidence that the ailing, soft-spoken 65-year-old preacher is the top power behind -- or even a member of -- Jemaah Islamiyah, the group blamed for the October 2002 Bali nightclub bombings and the Aug. 5 bombing of Jakarta's Marriott Hotel.

However, they also found that Bashir was privy to -- and did nothing to stop -- plans by Jemaah Islamiyah to overthrow the government of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.

"The defendant ... had knowledge of an organization that is trying to topple the government," Judge Muhammad Saleh said, issuing the five-judge panel's sometimes contradictory decision. "That is why the secondary charge has been proven."

The sentence, which fell well short of the 15 years imprisonment sought by prosecutors, suggested that Indonesian authorities want to curb extremism without alienating mainstream Islamic opinion.

The result also suggested that legal protections instituted after the 1998 overthrow of the dictator Suharto have made stamping out Islamic militancy more difficult in Indonesia than in neighboring Singapore and Malaysia, where suspects are held under draconian internal security laws.

Analysts warned that far from ending the threat, the trial's verdict could fuel further extremism.

Source: Agencies

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