SELF-CONFESSED Bali bomber Idris burst into laughter in the minutes after he was cleared of a central role in the blasts that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. Unpunished because of a U-turn in Indonesian law, Idris was the last of the captured core Bali bombers to be tried. Three of his co-conspirators - Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra - were last year sentenced to death for their roles in the Bali bombings, and two to life in prison.
Led away to the holding cell at the back of South Jakarta district court, Idris, alias Jhoni Hendrawan, first looked horrified and then laughed as journalists pelted him with questions about the 10-year prison sentence he had just been given for his complicity in the bomb attack on Jakarta's Marriott hotel last August, which killed 12. "If we do anything, there's a risk," he said, from behind the bars of the holding cell. "This is the risk."
Idris attended nearly every major planning meeting leading up to the Bali bombing, helped purchase the van that was later packed with explosives, taught one of the suicide bombers to drive it, and personally detonated the smallest of the three Bali bombs outside the US consulate. Reading the short verdict, chief judge Asnahwati outlined the first charge, concerning Idris's role in transporting explosives for the Marriott blast. However, she explained that the second charge, concerning the Bali bombings, had been put to one side.
| Indonesia doesn't have any laws against killing 202 people, y'see... |
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