JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - An Indonesian court has sentenced an Islamic militant to nine years in prison for masterminding a double suicide bombing that targeted police at a bus terminal in Jakarta.

The North Jakarta District Court ruled that Kiki Muhamad Iqbal had organized and incited others to launch suicide attacks through his jihadist sermons.

Iqbal was among six suspected militants who were arrested days after last year's attack, in which two bombers blew themselves up at a bus terminal in eastern Jakarta, killing three policemen and themselves. The attack also wounded 12 people, both police and civilians.

Iqbal was earlier convicted in 2011 of making bombs and sentenced to six years in prison after police discovered a bomb lab in West Java's Cibiru village. </s> JAKARTA - A Muslim preacher was on Monday (April 9) sentenced to nine years in jail by an Indonesian court for inciting the suicide bombing in East Jakarta in May last year that killed three policemen.

Kiki Muhammad Iqbal, 38, had been charged with inciting others to commit an act of terrorism by delivering a sermon in a Bandung mosque on May 19, 2017, on how "mati syahid" - meaning "to die as a martyr" - is the ultimate goal of every good Muslim.

The message from former terrorist bomb-maker Kiki was allegedly directed at Ahmad Sukri and Ikhwan Nur Salam, the two men who died while mounting a suicide bomb attack near a bus station in Jakarta on May 24, 2017.

"The defendant has validly and convincingly been proven guilty of planning and inciting others to commit an act of terror," presiding judge Purwanto told the courtroom in North Jakarta District Court on Monday.

After the verdict was read out, Kiki told reporters outside the courtroom: "It's an unfair and tyrannical verdict."

Kiki's lawyer Kamsi said he will notify the court in a week's time whether his client intends to appeal against the verdict.

Inciting others to commit an act of terrorism is a crime in Indonesia punishable by death or life imprisonment.

Besides killing three policemen, the attack by the two men at the Transjakarta bus shelter in Kampung Melayu left 11 others injured, including a 17-year-old driver and 19-year-old student.

Kiki was arrested on June 5 in Sumedang, a regency located about two hours from Bandung by car, after police established a link between him and the two attackers.

He was a student of radical cleric Aman Abdurrahman, the leader of the Jemaah Ansharut Daulah, an alliance of Indonesian militants who have pledged their allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group.

Aman, in an ongoing separate trial, has been accused of inciting others to commit various terror attacks in Indonesia including the attack in Jakarta in January 2016, which left four bystanders dead, in what was the first incident claimed by ISIS in South-east Asia.

In 2010, Kiki was arrested for being a member of a terrorist cell in West Java known as "the Cibiru bomb group" and sentenced to six years in jail for terrorism-related offences a year later. After his recent release, Kiki refused to undergo a deradicalisation programme conducted by the National Counter-terrorism Agency. </s> JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An Indonesian court sentenced an Islamic militant to nine years in prison on Monday for masterminding a double suicide bombing last year that targeted police at a bus terminal in Jakarta.

Kiki Muhammad Iqbal, 38, was among six suspected militants who were arrested days after the attack, in which two bombers blew themselves up, killing three policemen and themselves. The attack also wounded 12 people, both police and civilians.

The suspects were believed to be members of Jemaah Anshorut Daulah, a network of about two dozen Indonesian extremist groups that formed in 2015 and pledges allegiance to Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The network, which the United States has designated a terrorist grouping, has been implicated in a number of attacks in Indonesia over the past year.

A panel of three judges at North Jakarta District Court ruled that Iqbal had organized and incited others to launch the suicide attacks through his jihadist sermons at a mosque in Bandung, the capital of West Java province. The bombers and other suspects attended the mosque.

"The defendant has legally and convincingly been proven guilty of organizing and inciting others to commit acts of terrorism," said presiding Judge Purwanto, who uses one name.

The May 24 attack last year was the deadliest in Jakarta since January 2016, when a suicide and gun strike in the central business district killed four civilians and four assailants.

In a separate trial in the same court, a panel of three judges sentenced another militant, Muslih Afifi Afandi, to seven years in jail for harboring other suspects and hiding information about the attacks from authorities.

Officials in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, have carried out a sustained crackdown on militants since the 2002 bombings by al-Qaida-affiliated radicals that killed 202 people in Bali. In recent years the country has faced a new threat as the rise of the Islamic State group in the Middle East has breathed new life into local militant networks. </s> JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An Indonesian court on Tuesday sentenced the minority Christian governor of Jakarta to two years in prison for blaspheming the Quran, a shock decision that undermines the country’s reputation for practicing a moderate form of Islam.

The five-judge panel said Gov. Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama was “convincingly proven guilty of blasphemy” and ordered his arrest. However Ahok immediately announced he would appeal the guilty verdict and sentence.

Outside the court in north Jakarta, supporters of Ahok wept and hugged each other amid shouts of jubilation from members of conservative Islamic groups.

The lead judge said the trial was a purely criminal one and the court disagreed that there were political aspects to the case.

The blasphemy accusation against Ahok was a decisive factor in his defeat to a Muslim candidate in last month’s election for Jakarta governor. It sparked massive anti-Ahok protests in the city, boosting hard-line Islamic groups that said it would be a sin for Muslims to vote for a non-Muslim.

The two-year prison sentence was a surprise outcome after prosecutors had recommended two years of probation.

The maximum sentence for blasphemy in Muslim-majority Indonesia is five years in prison.

The lead judge, Dwiarso Budi Santiarto, said Ahok’s comment during the election campaign that people were being deceived if they believed the Quran forbids Muslims from voting for non-Muslims had degraded and insulted Islam.

“As part of a religious society, the defendant should be careful to not use words with negative connotations regarding the symbols of religions including the religion of the defendant himself,” he said. </s> Jakarta: Indonesian cleric Aman Abdurrahman was sentenced to death today over his role in a 2016 Islamic State terror attack that saw a suicide bomber blow himself up at a Jakarta Starbucks cafe.

Heavily armed police guarded the hearing at a Jakarta court — which had earlier found Abdurrahman guilty of masterminding the attack that killed which left four attackers and four civilians dead — as it ordered his execution. "(The defendant) has been proven to have committed a criminal act of terrorism," said judge Akhmad Jaini, who also cited Abdurrahman's involvement in other attacks for handing down the death penalty. "He will be sentenced to death."

The convicted terror mastermind, who sat on a defendant's chair in the middle of the courtroom, appeared bored with the proceedings and showed little reaction to the sentence. Executions are carried out by firing squad in the world's biggest Muslim-majority country, which has long struggled with Islamist militancy.

In 2002, bombings at the resort island of Bali killed over 200 — mostly foreign tourists. It was Indonesia's worst-ever terror attack. The assault in the capital two years ago saw security forces battle gun-toting militants near the cafe where a suicide bomber detonated his explosives. Last month, prosecutors demanded that Abdurrahman be handed a death sentence for his role in the attack, which was the first claimed by IS in Southeast Asia.

Considered the de facto head of all IS supporters in Indonesia, Abdurrahman — believed to be 46 — is also the spiritual leader of local extremist network Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD). Authorities have said JAD was involved in the 2016 attack and a recent wave of suicide bombings in Indonesia's second-biggest city Surabaya.

Two families — including girls aged nine and 12 — blew themselves up at churches and a police station last month, killing 13. Authorities have not charged Abdurrahman — who was already in jail on a separate terror conviction — over the Surabaya attacks.

Despite being imprisoned since 2010, Abdurrahman has recruited militants to join IS, is thought to have been in communication with leaders of the jihadist group, and is the main translator for IS propaganda in Indonesia, according to analysts and authorities. </s> A radical cleric has been sentenced to death by an Indonesian court for ordering Islamic State group-affiliated militants to carry out attacks including the January 2016 suicide bombing at a Starbucks in Jakarta.

A radical cleric has been sentenced to death by an Indonesian court for ordering Islamic State group-affiliated militants to carry out attacks including the January 2016 suicide bombing at a Starbucks in Jakarta.

Aman Abdurrahman, who police and prosecutors say is a key ideologue for IS militants in the world’s largest Muslim nation, kneeled and kissed the floor as the panel of five judges announced the sentence.

Several hundred paramilitary and counterterrorism police secured the Jakarta court where the trial took place. Fears of attacks have been elevated in Indonesia after suicide bombings in the country’s second-largest city, Surabaya, last month that were carried out by families including their young children.

Police say the leader of those bombers was part of the network of militants inspired by Abdurrahman. Aman Abdurrahman reacts after his sentence hearing at South Jakarta District Court (Tatan Syuflana/AP) During the trial, prosecutors said Abdurrahman’s instructions from prison, where he was serving a terrorism-related sentence, resulted in several attacks in Indonesia.

They included the Starbucks attack in the capital that killed four civilians and four militants, an attack on a bus terminal in Jakarta that killed three police officers and an attack on a church in Kalimantan that killed a two-year-old girl. Several other children suffered serious burns from the Kalimantan attack.

The court said there was no reason for leniency. It gave seven days for defence lawyers to consider lodging an appeal. Abdurrahman has refused to recognise the authority of the court, part of his rejection of secular government in Indonesia and desire to replace it with Shariah law.

Reflecting a dire lack of supervision of militants in Indonesia’s overcrowded prisons, Abdurrahman was able to spread radicalism and communicate with his supporters on the outside through visitors and video calls, they say.

The suicide bombings in Surabaya killed 26 people, including 13 attackers. Two families carried out the attacks, using children as young as seven. Abdurrahman was sentenced to prison in 2004 after a bomb he made prematurely exploded at a house in West Java, and again in 2011 for his role in helping set up a jihadi training camp in a mountainous area of Aceh province. </s> JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - An Indonesian court has sentenced radical cleric Aman Abdurrahman to death for ordering Islamic State group-affiliated militants to carry out attacks including the January 2016 suicide bombing at a Starbucks in Jakarta.

Several hundred police secured the Jakarta court where Abdurrahman's verdict was announced Friday. Prosecutors had demanded the death penalty.

Police and prosecutors say Abdurrahman is the key ideologue for IS militants in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation.

Fears of attacks have been elevated in Indonesia after suicide bombings in the country's second-largest city, Surabaya, last month that were carried out by families including their young children.

Police say the leader of those bombers was part of the network of militants inspired by Abdurrahman. </s> Jakarta: There has been a new twist in the blasphemy saga gripping Indonesia with Islamic hardliner Habib Rizieq reported to police for allegedly insulting Christianity during a sermon on Christmas Day. The latest drama came as the North Jakarta District Court ruled it would proceed with the blasphemy trial of Jakarta's Christian governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, known as Ahok, who is facing a maximum five years' jail for allegedly insulting Islam.

Start the conversation, or Read more at The Age. </s> The South Jakarta District Court found on Friday Aman Abdurrahman guilty of inciting several terror attacks in Indonesia and sentenced the radical cleric to death.

"The defendant has been found guilty beyond reasonable doubt of inciting others to commit terrorism," presiding judge Akhmad Jaini read in the verdict.

Aman, the de facto leader of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a local affiliate of the Islamic State (IS) terror group, had been found responsible for inciting others to commit at least five terror attacks in Indonesia, including the Thamrin shootings and suicide bombings in 2016 on Jl. MH Thamrin in Central Jakarta and the Kampung Melayu bombings in East Jakarta last year.

The panel of five judges found his teachings were behind the terror attacks.

Aman denied that he was involved in the attack, despite admitting that he had urged his followers to go to Syria to join the IS in its quest to establish a global caliphate.

He denounced in his defense plea the recent terror attacks in Indonesia, saying the perpetrators were ignorant and mentally ill.

The judges dismissed Aman's claim, saying based on witnesses’ testimony he had instructed his followers to create chaos and panic in Indonesia as mandated by IS leader Al-Baghdadi.
Extremist Muslim preacher Kiki Muhammad Iqbal is sentenced to nine years for inciting terrorism for a sermon he gave last year at a mosque in Bandung. The sermon is alleged to have caused two suicide bombers to launch a May 2017 attack that killed three policemen in East Jakarta.