Indonesian terrorist Zulkarnaen sentenced to 15 years’ jail

A TOP Indonesian terror suspect who evaded capture for 18 years despite a $7 million bounty has been sentenced to 15 years’ jail – though not for his alleged role in the 2002 Bali bombings after a Jakarta court found the statute of limitations for those charges had expired.

Aris Sumarsono, 58, or Zulkarnaen, former military commander of Indonesian militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, was facing a possible life sentence for charges related to the Bali attack, in which 202 people were killed including 88 Australians, as well as for his alleged role in establishing a terror training camp in the Philippines.

The militant was named a suspect soon after the October 2002 attacks on Padi’s Pub and the Sari nightclub in Bali’s Kuta tourist strip but eluded capture until his 2020 arrest in Lampung, the same southern Sumatra town where JI bombmaker Taufik Bulaga was arrested a week earlier.

A three-judge bench in the East Jakarta District Court dismissed charges that Zulkarnaen masterminded the deadly Bali attack but found him guilty of harboring fellow terrorist Taufik Bulaga, and of withholding information of terrorism plans and ­activities.

The same court sentenced ­Bulaga to life imprisonment last month for his involvement in three terrorist strikes on central Sulawesi between 2004 and 2006 that killed 29 people. He too avoided indictment on Bali bombings-related charges.

District Court Chief Justice Alex Adam Faisal said the bench had no choice but to dismiss charges submitted by prosecutors ­related to the Bali bombings – which Zulkarnaen had denied – “because they had passed their time limit”, which was 20 years.

“The verdict is still ­related to the Bali bombing in the sense that the defendant had the information about that incident but hid it,” Justice Faisal said, adding the senior JI operative – who attended sentencing via Zoom – “was aware of all JI activities”.

“Before the Bali bombing he was very involved in JI activities but he began to distance himself before the incident. He was not involved in the incident but, yes, he had the information. He was also aware of the equipment used. He also hid Taufik Bulaga though he knew he was on the run.”

Zulkarnaen argued during his trial, which began last September, that he was a leader of JI’s military wing but had little involvement in the Bali bombings because he was focused on sectarian conflicts in Ambon and Poso, and in the southern Philippines.

Other militants convicted for their roles in the Bali attacks, ­including Umar Patek and Ali Imron who were sentenced to 20 years and life in jail respectively, also gave evidence that Zulkarnaen knew about the plot but played no operational role.

Still, for more than two decades Zulkarnaen was one of Indonesia’s most senior terrorism figures, and the only Indonesian to be included on the US ­“Rewards for Justice” program that offered a $A7 million bounty for his capture.

He became JI’s operations chief in 2003 after the arrest of his predecessor, Encep Nurjaman, also known as Hambali, in Thailand, and has been on a UN ­Security Council al-Qa’ida sanctions list since 2005 for associations with Osama bin Laden or the Taliban. (By Amanda Hodge / The Australian)