LAKSAMANA.Net, November 17, 2003 11:55 PM
Samudra's Death Sentence Appeal Rejected
Laksamana.Net - Imam Samudra, the Islamic radical who masterminded last year's
Bali nightclub bombings, on Monday (17/11/03) lost his first appeal against the death
sentence.
He becomes the second key bomber on death row to have his appeal rejected, after
Amrozi.
Bali High Court has now rejected the appeals of Samudra and 10 other militants found
guilty of involvement in the October 12, 2002, bombings that killed 202 people, mostly
foreign tourists.
State news agency Antara quoted High Court chief I Made Tara as saying the court
has upheld the death penalty for Amrozi and Samudra; as well as 16-year jail terms
for Abdul Rauf and Andri Oktavia; 15-year terms for Junaedi and Andi Hidayat; a
7-year term for Bambang Setiono; and a 4-year term for Ahmad Budi Wibowo, among
others.
Tara said his court would inform the Denpasar District Court of the rulings, which
would then convey the decisions to the convicts and their lawyers.
Denpasar District Court on September 10 convicted the 33-year-old Samudra of
plotting and carrying out the bombings.
The court said he held a series of meetings in several Indonesian cities – Surakarta
(Central Java), Lamongan (East Java) and Denpasar (Bali) – to plan the attacks.
The meetings were follow-ups to the so-called Bangkok Meeting held in Thailand in
February 2002. That meeting was reportedly led by Hambali, the alleged operational
commander of regional terrorism network Jemaah Islamiyah, which has been blamed
for the Bali blasts and a string of other bombings.
Hambali, regarded as the key link between Jemaah Islamiyah and Osama bin Laden's
al Qaeda organization, was arrested on August 11 in Thailand. He is now being held
by the US at an undisclosed location.
Samudra, who trained under the Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, has repeatedly said
he wants to die as a martyr to become closer to God, although he has strongly
denied leading the group of militants that carried out the Bali bombings.
Prosecutors had said Samudra recruited some of the bombers, selected the targets
and helped fund the attacks.
They said his goal was to avenge the mistreatment of Muslims by the US and Israel.
Only seven of victims of the two blasts were Americans, while 88 were from Australia.
Even thought Samudra had repeatedly claimed he wanted to become a martyr, he
ended up asking his lawyers to appeal against the death sentence, claiming that he
should have been tried under Islamic law.
Samudra has shown virtually no remorse for his actions, apologizing only to the
victims who were Indonesians and Muslims. "I'm pleased if the victims came from
countries that are allies of the US," he said.
Judges said the militant deserves capital punishment, which is carried out in
Indonesia by a 15-member firing squad of paramilitary police.
Samudra's lawyer Wirawan Adnan on Monday told Agence France-Presse he was not
surprised that his client's appeal had been rejected.
He declined to say whether Samudra would now follow Amrozi's example of appealing
to the Supreme Court.
A third bomber, Amrozi's brother Mukhlas, is also on death row and appealing his
sentence. Their sibling Ali Imron managed to get away with a life sentence after
expressing remorse.
Evidence
Imron was back in court on Monday to give evidence in the trial of Abdul Ghoni alias
Umar alias Wayan, who could face the death penalty if found guilty of helping to plan
the attacks, assemble the bombs and possession of explosives.
Imron revised testimony he made in earlier trials, saying he had earlier mistakenly
said the bombers were given their tasks during a meeting at the residence of
Hernianto in Solo, Central Java.
This time, Imron said he remembered the meeting in question had been held at a
house rented by Dulmatin, a key suspect who remains at large.
Hernianto (26) was on September 29 sentenced to 12 years in jail for helping with the
bombings by allowing his house to be used as a venue for one of the meetings held
by the bombers.
In his defense, Hernianto had claimed that he merely "served tea and cakes" at the
gathering.
Imron on Monday said the meeting at Dulmatin's house had tasked Ghoni to mix the
ingredients for the main bomb used in the attack on the Sari Club.
But he said Ghoni did not participate in the making of the bomb, which was
assembled by Dulmatin.
The bomb was packed into a van and consisted of 12 filing cabinets filled with 900
kilograms of explosives, including aluminum powder and sulfur. The van was driven to
Bali by Amrozi, who had purchased some of the chemicals in East Java.
Prosecutors have said Ghoni had helped to mix the chemicals on October 1 after he
had compacted the ingredients a month earlier.
Imron said he first met Ghoni in Afghanistan in 1991. He said they had delivered four
boxes of explosive materials to Bali and, on the orders of Samudra, delivered Rp10
million to Amrozi in East Java on October 4, 2002.
In earlier trials, Imron confessed to driving the van to near the Sari Club before a
suicide bomber took over. He also admitted training a second suicide bomber, who
targeted Paddy's Irish Pub, how to detonate a vest containing explosives.
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