Cleric gets 30 months for Bali bomb conspiracy

The alleged founder of the Indonesian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah was today sentenced to 30 months in prison for his role in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing.

Abu Bakar Ba'asyir was found guilty of conspiracy but cleared of the charges that he ordered the attack. The judges also cleared the cleric of planning the 2003 suicide bombing of the Marriott hotel in Jakarta, which killed 12 people.

Ba'asyir, who could be released by October 2006, had faced a maximum penalty of death for the most serious charges but analysts had predicted his punishment would be far less, partly due to the prosecutors' weak case. During the five-month trial, only one witness testified that Ba'asyir headed Jemaah Islamiyah, the group blamed in both attacks.

Both sides said they would consider appealing against the verdict, with Ba'asyir's lawyers calling the sentence politically motivated. The cleric and his supporters have claimed Jakarta was under pressure from Washington to find him guilty.

"I'm being oppressed by people from abroad and at home," Ba'asyir, surrounded by cheering supporters, said after the verdict. "They are slaves to immoral behaviour. They make immoral behaviour their guide. Open their hearts or destroy them."

The US and Australia, 88 of whose citizens died in the attack that killed 202 people on Bali, consider Ba'asyir the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah and were hoping for a lengthy prison term to discourage terrorism in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

The Australian foreign minister, Alexander Downer, said he hoped prosecutors would appeal against the length of Ba'asyir's sentence. "We'd have liked a longer sentence," he said in Melbourne.

"He has, without any doubt, been a spiritual inspiration to Jemaah Islamiyah in Indonesia, and Jemaah Islamiyah is linked up with al-Qaida and other terrorist networks."

A spokesman for the US embassy in Jakarta expressed "disappointment" at the length of the sentence.

Zachary Abuza, an expert on militant Islam, said Ba'asyir's supporters would be emboldened that the court dropped the serious charges.

"I'm actually surprised that [the sentence] is that long," he told the news agency. "I thought it would be much lighter. They are going to feel vindicated, that prosecutors have to drop many charges against him and indeed dropped demands for a fuller sentence."

The conspiracy conviction relates to allegations that Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, who was later convicted along with 35 other militants of the nightclub bombings, visited Ba'asyir three months before the attacks to ask for his blessing. During that meeting, Amrozi testified that Ba'asyir responded that "it was up to you" when asked about the Bali bombing.

"By leaving it up to Amrozi, this means that the defendant, Ba'asyir, would have known what would happen in Bali," Judge Sudarto, presiding in the case, said.

He said that Ba'asyir, who has been in jail since last April, would get credit for time served and could be out before the end of 2006.

A dozen heavily armed officers had escorted Ba'asyir into the courtroom where he smiled and told reporters that George Bush was "evil".