October 3, 2003	Friday	Sha’aban 6, 1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

DENPASAR, (Indonesia), Oct 2: An Islamic teacher was sentenced to death by firing squad on Thursday after being found guilty of giving the final go-ahead to the Bali bombings which killed 202 people.

Indonesian judges said Ali Ghufron, better known as Mukhlas, had shown no remorse for authorising last October’s attacks, which they described as a “crime against humanity”.

“The defendant, Ali Ghufron... has been legally and convincingly proven guilty of having, together with others, planned an act of terrorism and also of being in illegal possession of explosives,” said Judge Cokorda Raka Suamba.

“We punish the defendant with the death sentence.”

Police say Mukhlas is a senior figure in the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah regional terror network and the man who authorised the suicide bombings last October 12.

“Allahu Akbar!” Mukhlas shouted three times in response to the sentence, rising to face his lawyers and shooting his arms in the air. He said he would appeal “because the law used is not in line with what I believe in.”

He is the third Bali bomber to receive a death sentence for the worst act of terror since Sept 11, 2001 in the United States.—AFP