Jakarta (dpa) – Indonesia's Supreme Court on Monday reinstated a 15-year jail sentence for radical cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir for terrorism, a court spokesman said. The Jakarta High Court in October commuted Ba'asyir's sentence to nine years, citing old age and other mitigating factors. But Ba'asyir's defense team later filed an appeal with the Supreme Court. “The Supreme Court has rejected the appeal and reinstated the 15-year sentence,” said court spokesman Ridwan Mansyur. In June, a Jakarta district court found Ba'asyir guilty of helping raise funds for a militant training camp in Aceh and sentenced him to 15 years in prison. Ba'asyir, who has praised late al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as a true Muslim fighter, has denied any wrongdoing. He said that his trial was a US-backed conspiracy to stop him from fighting to implement Islamic law in Indonesia. He was arrested in August 2010 after a series of police raids on alleged members of an al-Qaeda-inspired militant group that police said was setting up base in Aceh on Sumatra island and plotting to attack foreigners and government officials. Police killed Dulmatin, the group's alleged leader, in a raid in Jakarta in March last year. Like many Indonesians he had only one name. The trial was the third for Ba'asyir since the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison in 2005 after being found guilty of involvement in the Bali bombings. The Supreme Court later overturned the conviction. In a case brought against him in 2004, a court ruled there was not enough evidence to prove Ba'asyir was involved in the bombings, but it sentenced him to 18 months for immigration offenses. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/b7L45 Tags: Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, Cleric, Indonesia, Islam, Jail Section: East Asia, Latest News, Religion
