S'POREAN NATIONAL GETS 18 YEARS FOR TERRORISM

Jakarta, April 28 (ANTARA) - The South Jakarta district court sentenced Singaporean national Fajar Taslim alias Muhammad Hasan to 18 years in prison on Tuesday for terrorism.

His two accomplices, namely Ali Mashudi alias Zuber and Wahyudi alias Yudi, members of the Palembang Terrorist group, were sentenced to 10 years and 12 years in jail respectively.

The panel of judges led by chief judge Haswandi said in its ruling "first defendant (Fajar Taslim alias Muhammad Hasa), second defendant (Ali Mashudi alias Zuber) and third defendant (Wahyudi alias Yudi) are proven legitimately and convincingly guilty of committing terrorism crimes."
They said among the incriminating factors that led to the sentence were that their action had caused security disruptions in Indonesia and damaged the country's reputation while the first defendant had no regret over what he had done.

The second and third defendants meanwhile expressed regret over their action and victims that had fallen because of the first defendant's action.

The judges said the defendants had been proven involved in torturing priest Yoshua in Bandung and the killing of priest Dago Simamora in 2007.

"They also planned to conduct bombing at Cafe Bedudel in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, because it had many foreign visitors," the chief judge said.

They cancelled the plan because they saw some of the visitors wore headscarfs and no foreign tourists were there at the time.

The judges said the first defendant after following a military service in Singapore joined a military education in Kandahar, Afghanistan, for Jamaah Islamiyah activities and had also met with Osama bin Laden.

"Upon returning from Afghanistan he met with late Dr Azahari and Hambali in Malaysia and planned to conduct a suicidal operations in Thailand as well as Changi airport," he said. The action failed to materialize because it was known.

In response to the court's ruling the defendants' lawyer Asludin Hatjani, said he would take time to consider other legal efforts.

Seven other terrorists of the Palembang group that had been sentenced were Abdurrohman Thaib alias Musa and Ki Agus Muhammad Toni each receiving 12 years, Sugiarto alias Sugicheng, Agustiawarman alias Abu Taskid and Heri Purwanto alias Abu Hurairoh each getting 12 years.

Anis Sugandi alias Abdullah Hussair meanwhile had been sentenced to five years and Sukarso Abdillah alias Abdurrochman four years in prison.

The case was unveiled following the request of the Singapore police to arrest terrorist fugitive Mas Slamet Kastari who fled from that country's jail in 2007.

In connection with it, the police later arrested Muhammad Hasan who is one of Singapore's Jamaah Islamiyah bomb experts in Sekayu, Musi Banyu Asin on June 28, 2008.

From him nine other suspects who have received training in maming bombs from Muhamamd Hasan were arrested on July 2, 2008.