Four suspected Islamic militants went on trial yesterday for their alleged role in last year's suicide bombings on Bali -- attacks a prosecutor said were aimed at avenging Muslims' deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan.
If found guilty, they could face the death penalty under anti-terror laws.
Security was tight at the trials, the first to be held over the triple bombings that killed 20 people and were blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian terror group.
The group is blamed for several strikes since 2000 in Indonesia, including the 2002 nightclub blasts also on Bali that killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists.
Prosecutor Olopan Nainggolan read from a videotaped statement of responsibility released soon after the blasts by the alleged ringleader, Noordin Top, to shed light on possible motives of the accused.
"We declare our enemies are those that help the American alliance kill Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan," Nainggolan quoted the statement as saying. "This was revenge for that."
Facing trial are Dwi Widianto, 30; Mohammad Cholily, 28; Abdul Azis, 30; and Anif Solchanudin, 24.
Support team?
All are accused of "carrying out or taking part" in the blasts at three crowded restaurants, including by making, supplying and transporting the explosives, and sheltering Noordin.
The indictments revealed that the plotters communicated using instant messaging over the Internet, and that the three backpack bombs were built on Indonesia's main island of Java before being taken to Bali.
Prosecutors said that Azis was tasked with distributing Top's videotaped message of responsibility on a Web site. Solchanudin, meanwhile, had trained to be a fourth suicide bomber, but did not take part in the attacks for unknown reasons, they said.
"The accused underwent physical and mental training for being a suicide bomber," the prosecutor said at Solchanudin's trial. "He was told that if he spilled his own blood then the doors of heaven would be open for him and 70 members of his family."
One suspect, Cholily, shouted "God is Great" while being led from the court building, but the proceedings were orderly compared with other militant trials in Indonesia, which are often marred by rowdy supporters and angry outbursts from the accused.
Four Australians and one Japanese citizen died in the attacks at the three restaurants. The rest of the fatalities were Indonesians. At least 100 others were wounded in the blasts.
The trials took place in Bali's main town, Denpasar, a short journey from the scene of the bombings in two of the island's main tourist districts.
Adjourned
The men are being tried individually, in separate courtrooms.
Prosecutors read out their indictments against the men, who were not required to enter a plea or respond to the charges.
The trials were adjourned and will continue next week, when defense lawyers will present their objections to the charges.
Courts in Indonesia have sentenced scores of suspected Jemaah Islamiyah operatives in recent years, including handing down death sentences to three militants found guilty in the Bali bombing in 2002.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion