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| Wednesday, 9 February 2005 |
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Indonesian prosecutors seek 8 years for Bashir JAKARTA, Tuesday (Reuters) Indonesian prosecutors asked a court on Tuesday to sentence militant Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir to eight years on terrorism charges that include inciting the nightclub bombings on Bali in 2002 that killed 202 people. Bashir has repeatedly denied the charges, which he says resulted from Western pressure. His trial began in October and the defence still has to present its side of the case before the court reaches a verdict. "The defendant is proven guilty of carrying out terror acts as stipulated in the law ... and proven guilty of causing the fires (in Bali) which caused the deaths," prosecutor Salman Maryadi told the makeshift courtroom in a government building being used to accommodate the large number of spectators. Although Bashir was not at the locations of the attacks in Bali and Jakarta, he had been aware of the plans and did not stop the perpetrators from carrying out the bombings, he said. The 66-year old cleric, clad in his trademark white skull cap, did not respond to the prosecutors' comments. Dozens of his supporters shouted in anger. "Prosecutors are cruel," they yelled. Prosecutors could have demanded death for the charges, which also link the 66-year-old Bashir to the 2003 bombing of the JW Marriott Hotel in the capital, Jakarta, that killed 12 people. Officials say Bashir was the leader of the militant Jemaah Islamiah network. Intelligence experts describe Jemaah Islamiah as the regional arm of al Qaeda and blame it for carrying out and plotting violence across Southeast Asia. |
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