JAKARTA - An Indonesian court on Tuesday sentenced a man to four years in jail for his role in a suicide car bombing outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta last year, the second conviction handed down over the attack. Agus Ahmad, 31, was found guilty by the South Jakarta district court of helping alleged bombing mastermind Azahari bin Husin prepare the blast, which killed 10 people, all of them Indonesians.
The three-judge panel said Ahmad helped Azahari, a Malaysian and senior figure in Jemaah Islamiah, an Al Qaeda-linked network, as well as another defendant, Iwan Dharmawan alias Rois, transport explosive materials in July 2004. âThe defendant surely knew the things being carried around were explosive materials and that they could be used to make a bomb,â said presiding judge Johannes Suhadi. Ahmad said he would appeal. In previous court sessions he said he had no idea what was inside boxes he carried around. Prosecutors had earlier demanded the court jail Ahmad for five years for helping transport and hide the materials that were used in the Sept. 9, 2004, blast. Indonesia has blamed Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian militant network, for the attack.
Azahari, along with fellow Malaysian Noordin M. Top, are the most wanted men in Indonesia -- where police believe they are hiding. Police have said they believe both are recruiting more Islamic militants for further attacks. The duo are also accused of involvement in the 2002 Bali nightclub blasts that killed 202 people and a 2003 car bombing at Jakartaâs JW Marriott Hotel that left 12 dead. Ahmad was initially charged with hiding Azahari, but the prosecution dropped the charge because they believed the alleged bombmaker used an alias and Ahmad did not know he was wanted for the Bali and Marriott attacks.
In a separate trial against Rois in a nearby courtroom, a witness testified he sold the delivery van that was used in the bombing to the defendant. âThe defendant came to the showroom with two other men and saw (the car) and agreed the price. He test-drove it himself,â said car dealer Tjahja Setia Lusianto. The one-tonne bomb, which was stored in the delivery van, ripped open the blast-proof fence at the front of the heavily fortified Australian mission and damaged the front of the main building. |