Two leaders of suspected Bali bomb group sentenced to 15 years

AN INDONESIAN court sentenced two leaders of the Jemaah Islamiyah group, blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings, to 15 years’ jail yesterday.

Self-proclaimed Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) leaders Abu Dujana and Zarkasih were arrested in separate police raids on the island of Java in June last year. They were found guilty of assisting terrorists and possessing, storing and moving weapons destined for terror acts.

The charges under anti-terrorism laws in the world’s largest Muslim nation did not relate specifically to the bombings of crowded bars at the resort island of Bali which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

But JI is accused of organising the coordinated attacks and one of the alleged terrorists Dujana was convicted of protecting was Malaysian national Noordin Mohammad Top, one of the suspected Bali masterminds.

Top remains at large and is believed to be hiding somewhere in Indonesia. His colleague and compatriot Azahari Husin was shot dead in a raid in East Java in 2005.

Three men accused of carrying out the bombings — Amrozi, Ali Ghufron and Imam Samudra — face death by firing squad after being convicted of their roles in the attack.

Zarkasih is understood to have led the extremist group in 2004, before Dujana rose to prominence as leader of the organisation’s military wing.

“He knew about the firearms and ammunition that were to be used for terror purposes but he did not report this,” Judge Risdianto said of Zarkasih adding that the extremist group was a “terrorist organisation”.

Both men said they needed time to consider appealing.