Posted on 03/03/2005 9:35:24 AM PST by knighthawk
The Federal Government wants the prosecution to appeal against the jail sentence handed down to an Indonesian cleric convicted over the Bali bombings, which killed 202 people including 88 Australians.
Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who has been described as the spiritual leader of terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah (JI), has been given a two-and-a-half year jail term.
The chief Judge said Bashir had conspired with key bomber Amrozi over the attack.
But the court found him not guilty of organising or inciting the Marriott Hotel bombings in Jakarta.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says the prosecution had hoped Bashir would serve eight years in jail and yesterday's sentence will not satisfy Bali victims.
"We come from the perspective from being a country that lost 88 citizens in the Bali bombing," he said.
"We feel very passionately about what happened to our people and we'd have hoped the sentence would have been longer.
"For there to be a longer sentence the prosecution would have to appeal and we would hope that the prosecution would appeal."
He says Australia's ambassador in Jakarta has already passed on the Government's concern.
"He (Bashir) could have ordered that bombing didn't take place and chose not to," he said.
"In those circumstances, we think him ending up with a sentence of just two-and-a-half years is a short sentence."
'Bitter blow'
The federal Opposition also says the sentence is inadequate.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd says the sentence is a bitter blow to families that lost loved ones in the bombings.
"A jail sentence of 30 months is not in any way adequate for a man whose organisation, Jemaah Islamiah, has murdered more than 200 people, including nearly 100 Australians," he said.
"Our view is that this sentence is totally inadequate."
Democrats leader Lyn Allison says the leniency of the sentence will damage relations between Australia and Indonesia.
"Relations between Australia and Indonesia are going to be strained," she said.
Eric De Haart, from the Coogee Beach Dolphins Rugby League Club in Sydney, was walking to the Sari Club when the bomb went off.
He also says the sentence handed down to the cleric is not long enough.
"At the end of the day how much is going to be enough?" he asked.
"The guys will never come back so no matter how much he got it's not going to make a great deal of difference to me or perhaps to the parents, apart from giving us some sort of satisfaction that he's going to suffer a little bit as well."
Ping
Duh.
I think that they need to find out what jail cell he is in and slip him a GPS guided bomb, seeing as the good judge seems to think that bombings are 'ok'.
How's this guy any different than UBL, other than in scale of mass murder? Hunt him down and kill him, Australia. That's what the US will do to UBL.
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