Indonesia cleric linked to terror attacks gets 15 years
Indonesian militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir was jailed for 15 years on Thursday for helping plan a paramilitary group that aimed to kill the country's president, a sentence that could inflame hardcore Islamists who had vowed revenge.
Jailing Bashir, 72, considered the spiritual leader behind the group that killed more than 200 people in Bali in 2002, is an important step in government efforts to weaken terror groups, but may not reduce the threat of attacks as others push an Islamist agenda.
Bashir does not command widespread support in Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim community, but the guilty verdict could motivate groups which have already vowed reprisals after the U.S. killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
"It will not affect the security risk, but it is still better to keep him from preaching hate speeches," Ansyaad Mbai, the head of the counter-terrorism agency, told Reuters. "It is another step to stem the radicalization of more young people."
Underlining that risk, an anonymous text message circulating through the capital this week warned of 36 bombs exploding across the country the moment the judge in the south Jakarta court announced a guilty verdict.
There was no sign of any immediate attacks, though security risk firm Concord Consulting said one person was arrested and bomb making equipment seized in central Java on Thursday.
Bashir was found guilty of helping plan and fund a paramilitary training camp discovered last year in a remote mountainous part of Aceh, whose members sought to assassinate the president, destabilize Southeast Asia's largest economy and turn the officially pluralist and mostly moderate Muslim country into an Islamic state.
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