LAKSAMANA.Net, May 19, 2004 03:54 AM
Marriott Bomber's Accomplice Jailed
Laksamana.Net - Islamic militant Muhammad Rais has been sentenced to seven
years in jail for his role in last year's deadly suicide bombing of Jakarta's JW Marriott
Hotel.
Judges at South Jakarta District Court on Tuesday (18/5/04) said the defendant had
helped to transport chemicals used in the August 5 car-bombing that left 12 people
dead and 150 injured.
The dead included a Dutch banker and Indonesian security guards and taxi drivers.
Presiding judge Johannes Binti said Rais was found guilty of assisting a terrorist act
and had also helped some of the other bombers to obtain fake identity cards.
The vehicle containing the bomb was driven by Asmar Latin Sani, whose head was
blown off and up to the hotel's fifth floor by the force of the blast.
The attack has been blamed on regional terrorism network Jemaah Islamiyah, which
has also been accused of responsibility for the October 2002 Bali nightclub bombings
that killed 202 people.
Rais, who had also been accused of helping to recruit the suicide bomber, appeared
unemotional as the sentence was announced and later said he would consider
appealing.
Prosecutors had recommended a 10-year sentence for Rais, although the maximum
penalty under Indonesia's anti-terror legislation death.
Rais had earlier apologized to victims of the bombing and claimed he didn't know the
explosives he transported would be used in an attack. He also called on Jemaah
Islamiyah to renounce violence.
He said two key suspects had ordered him to transport 20 kilograms of potassium
chlorate – one of the chemicals used in the attack – from Sumatra to Jakarta, where
he put it in the house of another suspect.
The key suspects, Malaysians Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohammed Top,
remain at large after narrowly avoiding arrest last October in Bandung, West Java.
Authorities have warned the men are in possession of explosives and will attempt to
strike again.
Rais, who is the brother-in-law of Top, is among 15 people charged over the Marriott
bombing.
Another defendant, Sardona Siliwangi, was in February sentenced to 10 years in jail
for storing the explosives in Sumatra before they were given to Rais. Four other
defendants are still on trial.
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