Indonesian court reportedly cuts sentence for militant cleric

Oct 26, 2011, 11:32 GMT

Jakarta - An Indonesian appeals court reduced the terrorism sentence of radical cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir from 15 years to nine, a report said Wednesday.

The decision by the Jakarta High Court was made earlier this month, said Detik.com news website, quoting an unnamed court official.

'The sentence has been reduced to nine years,' the official was quoted as saying.

In June, a lower court sentenced Ba'asyir to 15 years in jail for helping raise funds for a militant training camp in Aceh.

Ba'asyir, who has praised bin Laden as a true Muslim fighter, has denied any wrongdoing, charging 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-insired 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.

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 offences.