Indonesia : Abu Bakar Bashir to serve 15 years

27.02.2012

Indonesia's top court on Monday upheld a 15-year jail term against Islamist militant Abu Bakar Bashir for terrorist acts, reversing an earlier decision to slash the sentence to nine years.
Bashir is regarded as a spiritual leader of militant Islam in Indonesia - the world's most populous Muslim country -- and is an outspoken supporter of Al-Qaeda-style jihad, but the 73-year-old has always denied being a terrorist.

In June last year a lower court sentenced him to 15 years in jail, but upon appeal the High Court slashed it to nine, citing lack of evidence and old age.
"Abu Bakar Bashir is proven to be guilty officially and convincingly of committing terrorist acts," the Supreme Court said in its ruling, which is final.
Bashir, who is behind bars, was the alleged founder and chief ideologue of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) group, responsible for a string of attacks including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists.