Islamist Cleric Jailed for Bali Bomb Plot

An Indonesian Islamist cleric widely regarded as a regional terrorist leader was convicted yesterday of taking part in the "evil conspiracy" of the 2002 Bali bombing and was jailed for 30 months.

Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, 66, was cleared of seven other terror-related offences, including direct involvement in the bombing and any connection with the 2003 blast at the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta.

The outcome pleased few people. Ba'asyir, the hundreds of supporters who flocked to the court, and his legal team were outraged, one lawyer describing it as a "face-saving political strategy".

But Australia and the US, which pressed Jakarta to prosecute Ba'asyir after he was acquitted of other terrorist offences in 2003, expressed their disappointment at the leniency of the sentence.

The five judges ruled that Ba'asyir had approved the bombing which killed 202 people at two nightclubs in October 2002.

"The defendant has been proved legally and convincingly to have committed the crime of evil conspiracy that caused fire that left other people dead," they said in their verdict.

"The defendant knew that the perpetrators of the bombing were people who have been trained in bombmaking in Pakistan and Afghanistan."

Ba'asyir responded with a long prayer in which he said: "God protect us from evil and its allies."

His lawyers said he would appeal, because the verdict was legally unsound, as it was based solely on an affidavit by one of the convicted Bali bombers which was not corroborated during the trial.

The judges noted that many witnesses had described Ba'asyir as the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, the terror network linked to al-Qaida, but they did not rule on it.

The Australian foreign min ister, Alexander Downer, said: "We'd have liked a longer sentence. He has without any doubt been a spiritual inspiration to Jemaah Islamiyah in Indonesia and Jemaah Islamiyah is linked with al-Qaida and other terrorist networks."

The US embassy in Jakarta said: "We respect the independence and judgment of the Indonesian courts, but given the gravity of the charge on which he was convicted, we're disappointed at the length of the sentence."