Bali bombings: Indonesia jails top militant over deadly nightclub attacks

A court in Indonesia has sentenced a leading member of the Islamist militant group that carried out the 2002 Bali bombings to 15 years in prison.

The court in Jakarta found Zulkarnaen, 58, guilty of terrorism.

He had been on Indonesia's most-wanted list ever since the bombings and had evaded arrest until December 2020.

The blasts at two bars packed with tourists on the holiday island killed 202 people from 21 nations in Indonesia's deadliest militant attack.

Among those killed at Paddy's Irish Bar and the nearby Sari Club were 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians and 28 Britons.

In 2008, three men were executed for their role in the bombings, and several others have either been jailed or killed by the security forces.

Last year, a radical Muslim cleric linked to the Bali attacks was freed after 10 years in jail. Abu Bakar Ba'asyir is the former head of Jemaah Islamiah, an al-Qaeda-inspired group behind the attack.

Zulkarnaen, also known as Aris Sumarsono, was part of the same group, prosecutors told the court.

They said numerous other attacks had been carried out by a special unit under his command in Indonesia and the Philippines.

These included Christmas and New Year church bombings in Indonesia in 2000 and 2001, a blast at the Philippines embassy in Jakarta in 2000, the 2003 Jakarta Marriot hotel bombing and the Australian embassy bombing in Jakarta in 2004.

Zulkarnaen, for whose capture the US had offered a $5m (£3.7m) bounty, admitted the Bali bombings were carried out by members of his team. But he told the court they had not advised him about the attack in advance, AFP news agency reports.

The judges did not agree that this absolved him of guilt.

"The fact that he was the head of the team and agreed on a plan in Bali... it could be considered agreeing to the plan," said the presiding judge who was not named for security reasons.

Zulkarnaen was found guilty of aiding and encouraging terrorism by lending money and giving shelter to militants and withholding information about attacks. But he was not found guilty of direct involvement in the bombings of the Bali nightclubs.

Prosecutors had asked for a life sentence.