The first hearing date has been set for the review of the
death sentence of the three key 2002 Bali bombers, despite
a defence plea to move the trial location away from Bali.
Denpasar District Court, where the death sentence was first
handed to the “smiling bomber” Amrozi, his brother
Ali Ghufron, alias Mukhlas and Imam Samudra, will hear the
reopening of the case for the first time on December 22. Lawyers
for the trio last week filed their Supreme Court challenge
to the executions, arguing the anti-terrorism law used to
convict the men was retroactive because it was introduced
after the 2002 bombings and could not beapplied.The execution
of the three, originally set down for July, was delayed after
their lawyers said they planned to lodge the judicial review
in the Indonesian Supreme Court months ago.There have been
several demonstrations by the Balinese locals calling for
the execution of the three since their conviction in 2003.
After the second bombing in 2005, protesters swarmed Kerobokan
prison where the trio were then being held, throwing rocks
at the prison walls and breaking down the outer fence. The
next day, the bombers were moved to Nusakambangan Island in
central Java. (December 13th 2006, AFP)
Indonesia Bans Film about Bali Attacks
The Indonesian government has banned a Dutch documentary from
an international film festival because it shows statements
by a man convicted over the 2002 bomb attacks on Bali. Organisers
of the Jakarta International Film Festival say the film has
been deemed too controversial by the state censorship agency,
because it contains comments made by Imam Samudra. Samudra
and his comrades Amrozi and Ali Ghufron have been sentenced
to death over their role in the Bali bombings. “Promised
Paradise” is about the quest of a puppeteer to meet
the three men, and discover their motives.The Dutch film maker,
Leonard Retel Helmrich, could not meet the convicts and used
clips from an illegal DVD of their statements instead. Four
films on Aceh and East Timor were banned earlier from the
festival, on the grounds they could disturb security.International
media watchdog ‘Reporters Without Borders’ criticised
the ban as “outdated censorship”. (December 13th
2006, ABC)
Australian Man Found Guilty of Abusing
Indonesian Boys - Lombok
An Australian man has been sentenced to four years in an Indonesian
jail for paying four young boys as little as $A5 each in return
for sex. Donald Storen, of Adelaide, has been found guilty
of “continuous sexual abuse” of the boys, aged
13 to 15, after offering them inducements in return for sexual
favours. Storen, 58, had been managing the Sengigi Reef Hotel
on the island of Lombok when he began systematically abusing
the boys, who he lured back to his hotel room. Chief judge
Ida Bagus Putu Madeg has told Lombok’s Mataram District
Court that Storen offered the boys between $A5 and $7 each
when they agreed to have sex with him.Storen, who vehemently
denied the allegations during his trial, and claimed the four
boys only began accusing him of sexual abuse after they were
caught stealing property from his hotel room while he was
out. Last month, he said he had asked Canberra to lodge a
complaint with Indonesia, asking why the boys had not been
charged with robbing him. In finding Storen guilty, Madeg
said alibis Storen had offered during his trial must be set
aside. The witnesses he had called had given inconsistent
and sometimes conflicting testimony, the judge said. The four
boys had also offered very similar accounts of how the abuse
occurred, and there seemed to be a consistent pattern, Madeg
said. (December 19th 2006, Kerala)
Indonesia Ready to Produce Bird Flu Vaccine
An Indonesian official said that Indonesia is ready to develop
a homegrown vaccine for the avian influenza virus, a report
said on Tuesday (17/12).“The government would first
improve the expertise of local scientists before they started
working on the vaccine,” Amin Soebandrio, chairman of
the National Commission for Avian Influenza, was quoted as
saying. He said Indonesia already had the advantage of controlling
good quality antitoxins for the vaccine. “Along with
Vietnam, we have two types of antitoxin for producing the
vaccine. So it is illogical to continue to import them,”
Amin said. Bird flu has killed 54 people nationwide in Indonesia,
the highest death toll among the countries infected with the
deadly disease. The Indonesia government has earlier agreed
to purchase 91 million dosages of bird flu vaccine from China.
(December 19th 2006, AP)
Bali Nine Member Plans Jail Wedding
Bali Nine drug mule Martin Stephens plans to marry the Indonesian
woman who brings him breakfast each day as he serves his life
sentence behind the walls of Kerobokan prison. Christine Winarni
Puspayanti wore a broad smile as she told of their plans to
marry inside the Bali jail as soon as possible. Puspayanti,
31, got to know Stephens, 30, last year when she and other
members of her church began visiting inmates at Kerobokan
jail, offering friendship and spiritual support. Stephens
took comfort from her visits, particularly when his trial
began last October over the 3.3kg of heroin police found strapped
to his body as he waited in April 2005 at Bali airport for
an Australia-bound flight. But she said that when they first
met in June 2005 he gave her a silver friendship ring. She
told of how Stephens had proposed to her. “He just asked
me. He said ‘we have to get married soon and have children’.”
Stephens’ mother Michele said her son had discussed
marriage but she did not believe it would happen soon. She
said the focus in the short term was examining new legal avenues
to secure a better deal for her son. She said the family had
a good relationship with Puspayanti and loved her dearly.
(December 20th 2006, AAP)
Aftershocks Rattle Quake Residents in Sumatra
Hundreds of people who escaped a deadly earthquake on the
Indonesian island of Sumatra are afraid to return home as
a series of aftershocks sparked fears of another quake, police
have said. Local police chief Rudi Sumarardiyanto in Panyabungan
bordering South and West Sumatra also said seismologists had
arrived to monitor the aftershocks following the 5.7-magnitude
quake Monday (18/12). Sumarardiyanto said some 500 people,
mainly women, children and elderly, whose homes were damaged
in the quake, had been transferred to Panyabungan. They feared
a fresh quake would hit the mountainous area since memories
of the 2004 tsunami which devastated Aceh further to the north
remained fresh, he said. “Local residents are afraid
to return home due to the constant aftershocks. So we have
evacuated them and they are being put up in an old government
office block,” he told AFP. “We do not know how
long they will remain there,” he added. Authorities
have revised the death toll down to four dead from the seven
reported earlier in quake which was centred 150 kilometres
(95 miles) southeast of Sibolga. “Four people were killed,
six suffered serious injuries and 25 people were treated for
minor wounds,” Sumarardiyanto said. He said the quake
damaged 860 homes in the mainly agricultural area which had
a population of around 10,000. Some 20 villages out of 23
in the worst-hit district of Muara Sipongi had been cut off
by the landslides. The deadly quake followed just half an
hour after a 5.8-magnitude earthquake hit the north of Sumatra.
(December 19th 2006, AFP)
Court Ruling Clears Bashir
Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Ba’asyir has had his conviction
for conspiracy in the 2002 Bali bombings overturned by the
Supreme Court in Jakarta. The ruling effectively clears the
68-year-old cleric of involvement in the deadly nightclub
attacks. Ba’asyir was released in June after serving
26 months in jail. But despite his claims of innocence, some
security experts still insist he was a founding member of
regional Islamic militant group Jemaah Islamiah. Ba’asyir
was first arrested shortly after the Bali nightclub bombings
in October 2002, although he was never accused of actually
taking part in the attack. Ba’asyir was held in custody
and faced two separate trials, eventually serving two separate
sentences, the first for minor immigration offences, and the
second for being part of what the court called an “evil
conspiracy”. In both cases more serious charges were
either dropped or later overturned on appeal. Now the conspiracy
charges have also been dropped, as a result of an appeal filed
during Ba’asyir’s imprisonment. As a charismatic
preacher and teacher, he is thought to have provided encouragement
and some would argue ideological justification - for violence.
(December 19th 2006, AAP)
10 Killed in Concert Crush in Pekalongan,
Central Java
A stampede at a pop concert in central Java killed 10 people
and injured scores of others, most of them teenagers, police
said Wednesday (20/12). The crush began as the audience of
thousands was leaving the performance of Ungu, a popular Indonesian
band, at a sports stadium in the town of Pekalongan, Central
Java province, late Tuesday (19/12), said Sgt. Slamet, who
goes by just one name. “People were very rough and began
pushing,” he told The Associated Press. “The victims
were trampled to death.” Police took 10 bodies to the
nearest hospital, while dozens of others had minor injuries,
said Slamet. Concert organizers were not immediately available
for comment. (December 19th 2006, AP)
Tanker Explosion Felt 2 Km Away - Denpasar
A tanker that exploded at the PT Marga Jaya Utama depot in
Jalan Bulu Indah Denpasar on Saturday (16/12) rocked homes
up to two kilometres away according to reports from local
residents. Some witnesses said that the blast was so strong
that they were certain it had been caused by a bomb.The tanker
exploded at about 17.15 hours as two men were repairing the
truck with welding equipment. Both men (Ali and Anto) were
killed instantly in the explosion, their bodies were found
over 20 meters from the vehicle that was ripped open by the
blast. (December 17th 2006, Radar Bali)
Indonesia on Holiday Attack Alert
Indonesia deployed some 18,000 police and troops to guard
churches and mosques over Christmas and New Year with terror
mastermind Noordin Top still on the loose, police said today.
The US embassy warned yesterday of the possibility of militant
attacks against Americans and other Westerners during the
festive season. National police chief Sutanto said the force
“will be on the alert because (Noordin) is still at
large.’’ Noordin is a key member of the al-Qaeda-linked
Jemaah Islamiah extremist network, blamed for a series of
terrorist attacks including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed
202 people, including 88 Australians. Jakarta police spokesman
Ketut Untung Yoga Ana said “Operation Candlelight’’
would kick off on December 23 for 11 days. Some 18,000 police
and army personnel would be deployed to safeguard churches
and mosques, as well as strategic public and commercial venues
in Jakarta and other key locations throughout the country
Mr. Ana said. (December 23rd 2006, AP)
70 Bodies Found as Floods Death Toll Rises - Aceh
Authorities found more than 70 more bodies in flood- ravaged
villages in western Indonesia today, officials said. An aerial
view from an aid flight over the worst-hit region on Indonesia’s
Sumatra Island showed many houses submerged, while only the
roofs of others were visible. Some families were trapped on
the roofs of their homes. The death toll from more than three
days of rain-triggered flooding on Sumatra was at least 87,
with dozens reported missing, while seven people have been
killed in neigh bouring Malaysia, officials said.More than
150,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in both
countries.The worst hit region was in Tamiyang district in
Aceh province in northern Sumatra, where rescuers found 60
bodies oday, an Aceh government spokesman said.Aceh was the
region worst hit by the 2004 Asian tsunami, but this week’s
flooding was in areas unaffected by that disaster.Another
official said 13 more people, mostly children, were killed
elsewhere, adding to 14 confirmed dead yesterday. State news
agency Antara reported 114 people killed, but gave no attribution.In
Malaysia, nearly 70,000 evacuees were in public shelters in
Johor state, about 10,000 in Malacca and 5,760 in Pahang,
Bernama news agency said. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
called on people to help prevent looting in the flooded areas
by making citizen’s arrests, the report said. (24th
December 2006, Breaking News)
