[Myanmar] Seven Years for Failed Burma Embassy Bomber in Indonesia

Indonesian police are deployed outside the Burma Embassy in Jakarta in 2013. (Photo: Reuters)

JAKARTA — The South Jakarta District Court on Monday sentenced Achmad Taufik to seven years and six months in prison over his role in a failed plot to bomb the Burma Embassy in Jakarta.

The panel of judges, presided over by Suprapto, said Achmad was proven guilty of conspiring to bomb the embassy in Menteng, Central Jakarta, on May 3, 2013.

“We’re handing down seven years and six months in prison [for Achmad],†Suprapto said as he read out the verdict on Monday, according to Indonesian news portal liputan6.com.

The sentence is slightly lower than the eight years in prison sought by prosecutors.

National Police’s anti-terror unit Densus 88 thwarted the planned attack just before it was launched and arrested Achmad and another man identified as Sigit Indrajit.

Police seized five home-made pipe bombs carried inside a black backpack from the two suspects. Since then, five others have been arrested in connection to the plot.

Sigit, believed to have masterminded the plan, is being tried separately in relation to the case. His verdict was supposed to be handed down on Monday as well, but judges rescheduled the hearing for Jan. 21 without giving a reason why.

Some terrorist cells in Indonesia have started targeting the Burma Embassy and local Buddhist temples in what they claim to be acts of solidarity with Rohingya Muslims suppressed by the Burmese authorities.

The post Seven Years for Failed Burma Embassy Bomber in Indonesia appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.