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.
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
At first, Francis Ari Sture thought a human was trying to shove him down the steep Norwegian mountainside. Then he saw the golden eagle land. “We are staring at each other for, maybe, a whole minute,” Sture said on Monday. “I’m trying to think what’s in its mind.” The bird then attacked Sture five more times on Thursday last week, scratching and clawing the 31-year-old bicycle courier’s face and arms over 10 to 15 minutes as he sprinted down the mountain. The same eagle is believed to be responsible for attacks on three other people across a vast mountainous area of southern Norway
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
RSS