Asia-Pacific News
Ten Indonesian militants sentenced for mosque attack
Feb 1, 2012, 14:34 GMT
Jakarta - An Indonesian court sentenced 10 Islamist militants to between eight and five years in prison Wednesday, for their roles in last year's suicide bombing at a police mosque.
The April 2011 attack inside a police compound in the West Java city of Cirebon killed the bomber and wounded 30, most of whom were police officers.
Police said they had been targeted by Islamist militants who saw the institution as an enemy.
Judges at the Tangerang district court found the defendants guilty under the country's anti-terrorism law.
The International Crisis Group, a think tank, said in a report released last week that the people behind the Cirebon bombing were members of vigilante groups involved in a campaign against vice.
They had been radicalized through public lectures by radical clerics and taught themselves bomb-making from the internet, according to the think tank.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, has been hit by a string of bomb attacks blamed on Islamist militants since 2000.
Police have arrested about 500 suspected Islamic militants since the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people.
COMMENT
blog comments powered by DisqusLatest Headlines in Asia-Pacific
- 1. Chinese dissidents hail late democracy activist Fang Lizhi
- 2. China "worried" over planned North Korea rocket launch
- 3. Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi meets Karen rebels
- 4. Chinese schoolboy sells kidney to buy iPad, iPhone
- 5. Myanmar president invites Karen rebels to form party
Older Talkback
