Posted on 06/02/2003 1:50:20 PM PDT by knighthawk
LEADING his lawyers in a series of Islamic chants, accused Bali bombing mastermind Imam Samudra faced trial yesterday, not denying his role in the atrocity but challenging the laws Indonesia is using to prosecute him.
"Alahu Akhbar," Samudra shouted as he took the accused's chair.
He followed up with three cries of "Exalt him", which his lawyers echoed loudly.
After the 43-page prosecution indictment was read to the Denpasar District Court, Samudra's chief counsel, Quadhar Faisal, claimed the involvement of foreign police in the investigation had been an obstruction of justice and said his client's main sentence for the Bali attacks should be no longer than four years.
The team of seven defence lawyers also announced they would appeal to the Supreme Court, claiming the retrospective anti-terrorist laws used to charge Samudra and the other Bali bombers were not valid on constitutional grounds.
As was the strategy for his co-accused Amrozi, the lawyers, all of whom addressed Samudra as "my brother", claimed he was just a bit player in the plot, unlike the on-the-run terrorist who detonated the two bombs, killing 202 people and maiming hundreds more.
Samudra fidgeted and at one stage dozed off as the four terrorism charges were read to him.
He was accused of planning the attack during four meetings that followed a seminal gathering in Bangkok in February 2002 where a bombing campaign against the US was first raised.
The indictment spelt out Samudra's alleged role as co-ordinator, site surveyor, bagman and selector of the two suicide bombers. He was also accused of masterminding a jewellery shop robbery to partially finance the Bali operation.
The key accusation was that Samudra had "intentionally used violence or threats of violence to cause public terror or fear, or to cause mass casualties, by means of destroying the liberty or lives or property of others".
Samudra was at a house in Denpasar when the fugitive Idris phoned him with the news that the bombs had successfully exploded.
A photo of victims from the blasts was later found on his laptop computer, along with a photo of his mentor, the alleged spiritual leader of terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah, Abu Bakar Bashir.
Judge Sugawa warned Samudra, who had rarely missed an opportunity to espouse his radical Islamic and anti-Western views, that the trial would be conducted in a proper manner, following an earlier pledge to kick him out if he proved unruly.
Outside the court, Bali police chief and former head of the bombing investigation, Major-General Made Mangku Pastika denied the involvement of foreign officers, including those from the Australian Federal Police, would pose a legal problem.
"The foreign police worked together with the Indonesian police and everything has already satisfied the procedures of our law," General Pastika said.
Randall Lee, whose twin brothers Justin and Aaron, and sister-in-law Stacey-Lee, died in the Sari Club, described Samudra as "basically a coward" and said he wanted to "take him out the back and shoot him in the neck".
How dare the government put in place laws that target terrorism - after the fact, he says. Like any civilized person would take a pro-terrorism position. This clown looks like a good candidate for whatever the most severe punishment is this country has to "offer." What arrogant, defiant scum.
I get the same sense when reading about these Bali bombers. They are no different than rabid animals.
A photo of victims from the blasts was later found on his laptop computer, along with a photo of his mentor, the alleged spiritual leader of terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah, Abu Bakar Bashir.One cannot help but think that people like Samudra and Bashir live in an anti-universe, where everything is inverted. In it, the mastermind of a gang of murderers is called a spiritual leader, the images of the mutilated corpses of children are kept as trophies to be exhibited in a mosque and the rights of the victims themselves to seek justice is questioned. No law over jihad is recognized because there can be no statutory restraint on the devil whom they serve.
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