A militant cleric jailed for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings will be among 53,000 inmates receiving sentence reductions to mark Indonesia's independence day, authorities and media reports said yesterday.
The youngest son of former dictator Suharto, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, is also expected to have his sentence for assassinating a judge reduced when Indonesia celebrates its 60th birthday on Wednesday, Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hamid Awaluddin was cited by the Jakarta Post as saying.
The 43-year-old former playboy earlier this year had his 15-year sentence reduced by five years on appeal.
But Abu Bakar Bashir -- the alleged spiritual head of the al-Qaida-linked terror group Jemaah Islamiyah -- would be the most controversial inmate to benefit from a reduction. He was convicted in March of conspiracy in the Bali bombings that killed 202 people, many of them Australian tourists. The Supreme Court rejected his appeal earlier this month.
Others convicted in the Bali blasts will also receive reductions in their prison terms, Hamid told the newspaper, without indicating how many.
"Convicts with a record of good behavior can get up to 10-months remission," said Mayun Mataram of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights in Bali.
Mataram said 19 of the 24 Bali bombers jailed will get sentence reductions.
It is an Indonesian tradition to cut jail terms on holidays for some of the country's 105,000 inmates who exhibit good behavior, with only those sentenced to death or life in prison excluded.
Authorities are expected to announce the length of the reductions on Wednesday, but on average terms are cut by a few months.
Attorney Wirawan Adnan, who represented many of the Bali bombers including Bashir, said his clients deserve a break just like any other well-behaved inmate.
"This is quite common. This happens all over the world if you have been a good boy and don't cause trouble," Adnan said.
"We're talking about human rights, and everyone should be treated the same whether you are a murderer [or] rapist," he said.
But Peter Hughes, a survivor who suffered serious burns in the Bali attacks, said the bombers should serve out their entire terms.
"We don't like it but there is not much we can do about," said Hughes of Perth, Australia. "This is not justice. These guys are criminals and murders should be given heavy penalties without a reprieve."
Bashir was sentenced in March to 30 months in jail for conspiracy in the Bali bombings that killed 202 people, many of them Australian tourists.
Bashir insisted he was innocent and that his conviction was part of a US-led campaign to silence him. Prosecutors, who had demanded an eight year sentence and could have asked for death, were angry about the light sentence.
Both sides appealed. But a Supreme Court earlier this month rejected the appeals and upheld the 30-month jail term.
The US and its close ally Australia want Bashir to stay behind bars for as long as possible. The Australian Embassy in Jakarta had no comment yesterday about the sentence reduction.
Jemaah Islamiyah is suspected in several other deadly attacks, including the 2003 JW Marriott hotel bombing in Jakarta that killed 12 people, and the Australian Embassy bombing in September last year that killed 11.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
The death toll from a shooting in western Afghanistan rose to 11 on Saturday, after gunmen targeted civilians at a picnic spot in Herat, the provincial authority said. Bullet marks were visible on a wall of the Sayed Mohammad Agha Shia shrine, while bloodstains marked a blanket abandoned at the scene. “Eleven people have been recorded dead and eight others wounded from Friday’s incident, with the condition of two of the wounded reported as critical,” Herat’s information office said in a statement. The update raises a toll of seven killed provided on Friday by the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs
RSS