REUTERS, Thursday December 19, 2002
Indonesia seeks only 1 year jail for Muslim cleric
JAKARTA, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Indonesian prosecutors asked a court on Thursday to
sentence a militant Muslim cleric to one year in jail for inciting hatred, well below the
maximum penalty he could be given.
The case is being closely watched by the international community because Jafar
Umar Thalib is the first radical Islamic preacher to be tried since President Megawati
Sukarnoputri took power in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
The trial is seen as a test of the government's willingness -- especially in the wake of
the Bali bomb attacks -- to crack down on militant Islam.
Thalib was accused of inciting hhatred against the government in a speech he
delivered early this year in the strife-torn Moluccas islands, some 2,300 km (1,400
miles) east of Jakarta, which has been riven by Mulsim-Christian violence.
He was head of Laskar Jihad, Indonesia's best-known militant Muslim group, until it
disbanded soon after the Bali blasts in October. Neither Laskar Jihad nor Thalib have
been implicated in the Bali atrocity, which killed at least 191 people.
"We ask the panel of judges to rule the defendant, Jafar Umar Thalib, guilty of inciting
hatred...and impose a jail sentence of one year," state prosecutor Slamet Riyanto told
the court.
But the sentencing demand at the East Jakarta District Court was far below the
maximum penalty of seven years.
Thalib has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
The trial was adjourned until January 9, when Thalib's lawyers would deliver their final
defence.
Laskar Jihad sent several thousand fighters to the Moluccas in mid-2000, adding to
tensions in the once picturesque region.
More than 5,000 people have been killed in the religious clashes there since early
1999, although a peace pact signed earlier this year has managed to keep a lid on
major outbreaks of violence.
Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
|
