Nine militants face death sentence over Java bomb blast
Nine hardline Indonesian Muslims who attended a bomb-making class that went awry have gone on trial here and could face death if convicted under an anti-terror law. The nine were accused of involvement in a bomb-making workshop held under the guise of a Koranic recital at a house in Cimanggis on the central island of Java in March, which ended when one of the devices assembled exploded. Four of the group went on trial Tuesday charged separately with "taking part in a sinister conspiracy" to carry out an act of terrorism, said Juniati, a clerk at the Cibinong district court, south of Jakarta. On Monday, the other five members of the group — including the wife of the owner of the house — also went on trial at the same district court, said another court clerk Agung. The alleged leader of the group, 32-year-old Oman Rahman has been charged with planning or motivating others to take part in terrorism and ordering others to illegally engage in efforts to produce explosives, Agung said. The bomb-making ingredients that the group was using were similar to those used in the Bali nightclub attacks of October 2002 in which 202 people were killed.
Police have said the group intended to use the bombs to battle "enemies of Islam", but it was not clear if they were connected to the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah, which has carried out a spate of attacks in recent years. These include the Bali attack and the Jakarta Marriott hotel bombing last August which killed 12 people. Jemaah Islamiyah is also believed to be behind a deadly suicide bomb attack two weeks ago on the Australian embassy in Jakarta. |