Indonesian militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir was jailed for 15 years yesterday for helping plan a paramilitary group that aimed to kill the country’s president, a sentence that could inflame hardcore Islamists who have vowed revenge.
Jailing Bashir, 72, considered the spiritual leader behind the group that killed more than 200 people in Bali in 2002, is an important step in government efforts to weaken terror groups, but it may not reduce the threat of attacks as others push an Islamist agenda.
Bashir does not command widespread support in Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim community, but the guilty verdict could motivate groups that have already vowed reprisals after the US killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
“It will not affect the security risk, but it is still better to keep him from preaching hate speeches,” said Ansyaad Mbai, head of the counterterrorism agency. “It is another step to stem the radicalization of more young people.”
Underlining that risk, an anonymous text message circulating through the capital this week warned of 36 bombs exploding across the country the moment the judge in the south Jakarta court announced a guilty verdict.
There was no sign of any immediate attacks, though security risk firm Concord Consulting said one person was arrested and bomb-making equipment seized in central Java yesterday.
Bashir was found guilty of helping plan and fund a paramilitary training camp discovered last year in a remote mountainous part of Aceh, whose members sought to assassinate the president, destabilize Southeast Asia’s largest economy and turn the officially pluralist and mostly moderate Muslim country into an Islamic state.
Bashir, who was acquitted on a charge of possessing weapons, had denied involvement in the plan.
Police stepped up security during the trial, with 2,900 officers at the court alone.
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Five flights have been arranged to help nearly 2,000 Taiwanese tourists return home from Okinawa after being stranded due to cruise ship maintenance issues, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced yesterday. China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), and EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) have arranged five flights with a total of 748 additional seats to transport 1,857 passengers from the MSC Bellissima back to Taiwan, the ministry said. The flights have been scheduled for yesterday and today by the Civil Aviation Administration, with the cruise operator covering all associated costs. The MSC Bellissima, carrying 4,341 passengers, departed from Keelung on Wednesday last week for Okinawa,
China is deploying its largest navy fleet in regional waters in nearly three decades, posing a threat to Taiwan that is more pronounced than previous Chinese war games, the Ministry of National Defense said today. Speaking in Taipei, ministry spokesperson Sun Li-fang (孫立方) said the scale of the current Chinese naval deployment in an area running from the southern Japanese islands down into the South China Sea was the largest since China held war games around Taiwan ahead of 1996 Taiwanese presidential elections. China's military has yet to comment and has not confirmed it is carrying out any exercises. "The current scale is
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