Posted on 09/10/2003 7:13:34 AM PDT by Valin
AKARTA, Indonesia, Sept. 10 — A defiant Islamic militant was sentenced to death today after being convicted of playing a major role in the Bali nightclub attacks that killed 202 people last year.
The defendant, Imam Samudra, 33, was described by a panel of five judges as the "intellectual actor" behind the bombings. He is the second man to be convicted in the Bali case.
After hearing the sentence, Mr. Samudra, who has shown a belligerent demeanor throughout his three-month trial, shouted, "America, Australia go to hell!"
In particular, he directed his anger at an Australian who waved an Australian flag, affixed with small portraits of the 88 Australians killed in the blasts, in Mr. Samudra's direction. Relatives of some of the Australians who perished in the attacks sat in the courtroom for today's hearing. Later they expressed satisfaction at the sentence.
The judges said that Mr. Samudra, who was dressed today in his usual white Muslim shirt and black cap, planned the bombings in order to seek revenge against the United States for its strikes on Afghanistan.
In reading the sentence, one of the judges, Ifa Sudewi, said that Mr. Samudra had committed "a crime against humanity." She said the bombings were a "cruel, savage, inhuman and from the religious aspect, a forbidden action."
Mr. Samudra trained at Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, the authorities say. He told the police after his capture last November that he had instructed the bomb makers for the Bali blast, and that he had instructed others in the plot to buy a car for the car bomb. He also told the police he was involved in the planning for a series of bombings in Indonesia against Christian churches in December 2000, the authorities said.
The prosecutors assert that he was a member of Jemaah Islamiyah, an Indonesia-based Islamic group, that investigators believe has direct links to Al Qaeda.
Mr. Samudra has said on several occasions that he would welcome the death sentence as a martyr for his cause. But after the proceedings, one of his lawyers said that Mr. Samudra had instructed him to appeal any death sentence.
Mr. Samudra insisted that he should have been tried under Islamic law, the lawyer, Qadhar Faisal, said. Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, is a secular state.
The reaction to the death sentence among moderate Muslim leaders, who represent the vast majority of Muslims here, was supportive of the court's reasoning.
A leading Islamic scholar, Azyumardi Azra, told Agence France-Presse that the sentencing was justified. "There will be a positive impact for the government from the verdict because it sends signals that terrorism is intolerable in Indonesia," he said.
Officials of the nation's largest Islamic organization, the moderate Nahdlatul Ulama, also praised the verdict.
The verdict and the quick support for it, was in contrast to the verdict last week in another militant Islamic case.
Abu Bakar Bashir, the accused leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, was sentenced to four years in jail on charges of treason, a far lesser sentence than the 15 years the prosecution had sought.
You first, Mr Samudra.
ooops..I really don't have to die to be a martyr, right? I could, uh, sit in jail..isn't that what martyrs do?
What a typical coward..actually, I wouldn't mind him being released into the general population of the prison..he is a little wimp who would be someones girlfriend real fast..
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