Prosecutors seek prison terms for five suspected terrorists

Jakarta - Government prosecutors on Tuesday demanded prison term ranging from seven years to 15 years for five suspected Islamic militants on trial for allegedly plotting to bomb a cafe and kill a Christian priest. Prosecutors told the South Jakarta court that the defendants were guilty of violating the country's tough anti-terrorism laws, enacted just weeks after the October 2002 bombings of two nightspots on the resort island of Bali that killed at least 202 people. Prosecutors sought 15 years in prison each for two of the five - Abdurrahman Thaib and M Agus Toni - and sought sentences of up to eight years for the other defendants. The trial of a Singaporean Muslim militant, Muhammad Hasan bin Zaynudin, was still underway. Prosecutors were also seeking a prison sentence for Hasan, who claimed to have met al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and undergone basic military training in Afghanistan. Prosecutors accused the defendants of plotting to attack a cafe in the West Sumatra town of Bukittinggi and kill a Christian priest in West Java in 2005. The defendants are among 10 suspected members of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant network arrested in June and July last year during raids on several locations in Palembang, the capital of South Sumatra province. Police seized 20 assembled bombs, dozens of kilograms of potassium chlorate and other explosive materials as well as several hand grenades during the raids. Police said they believed Muhammad was a close aide to Malaysian bomb-maker Azahari bin Husin, who was killed in a shootout with police at his East Java provinces hideout in late 2005. Counter-terrorism police are still hunting for Malaysian bomb-maker Noordin Mohammad Top, who allegedly leads a breakaway faction of JI and is believed to be a key player behind most major bombings in Indonesia. The country's anti-terror police have arrested some 300 militants in recent years, but authorities say the threat of more attacks remains, even though the country has not suffered a bombing since 2005.