The Jakarta Post, 11/16/2006 12:57:04 PM
A man sentenced to 3 years for harboring terror leader
MALANG, East Java (AP): An Indonesian court sentenced a man to three years in
prison on Thursday for harboring a Malaysian terror leader accused in a series of
bloody bombings in the country since 2002.
Achmad Basyir Umar was found guilty of violating the country's anti-terror law by
giving Noordin Top shelter in Malang on Java island in July 2005, judges at the Malang
District Court ruled.
Umar, 25, told reporters he was innocent and would appeal the verdict.
Presiding Judge Sutoto Hadi said Umar was guilty of giving Malaysian militant leader
Noordin Top shelter in Malang town on East Java preovince in July 2005.
Noordin is accused of plotting and carrying out two suicide bombings on the resort
island of Bali and two in the capital, Jakarta, that together killed more than 240
people, most of them foreigners.
He remains on the run, but police have arrested more than 300 other militants since
the 2002 Bali bombings, many of them suspected members of Jemaah Islamiyah, a
loose network of Southeast Asian militants that police say once had links with
al-Qaida.
Noordin is believed to have split from Jemaah Islamiyah after the first Bali bombings
amid disagreements over civilian, particularly Muslim, deaths and now heads his own
network.
He fled to Indonesia after the Malaysian governmentcracked down on Islamists
following the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US. (**)
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