Sept. 28
INDONESIA: 9 Islamic militant face death sentence in Indonesia 9 hard-line Indonesian Muslims who attended a bomb-making class that went awry have gone on trial here and could face death if convicted under an anti-terror law, court officials said Tuesday. The 9 were accused of involvement in a bomb-making workshop held under the guise of a Koranic recital at a house in Cimanggis on the central island of Java in March, which ended when one of the devices assembled exploded. 4 of the group went on trial Tuesday charged separately with "taking part in a sinister conspiracy" to carry out an act of terrorism, said Juniati, a clerk at the Cibinong district court, south of Jakarta. On Monday, the other 5 members of the group - including the wife of the owner of the house - also went on trial at the same district court, said another court clerk Agung. The alleged leader of the group, 32-year-old Oman Rahman has been charged with planning or motivating others to take part in terrorism and ordering others to illegally engage in efforts to produce explosives, Agung said. The bomb-making ingredients that the group was using were similar to those used in the Bali nightclub attacks of October 2002 in which 202 people were killed. Police have said the group intended to use the bombs to battle "enemies of Islam", but it was not clear if they were connected to the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah, which has carried out a spate of attacks in recent years. These include the Bali attack and the Jakarta Marriott hotel bombing last August which killed 12 people. Jemaah Islamiyah is also believed to be behind a deadly suicide bomb attack 2 weeks ago on the Australian embassy in Jakarta. (source: Agence France Presse) SUDAN: 3 militiamen receive death sentence A court in Sudan's troubled Darfur region has sentenced 3 militiamen to death and 6 others to up to 5 years in prison for murder and pillage, the pro-government Sudanese Media Centre said on Sunday. "The three militiamen were sentenced to death by hanging after they were found guilty of murder, pillage, arson and illegal possession of arms in South Darfur state," the news agency said. "Six others were sentenced to prison terms of between three and five years for involvement in the same crimes," it said without giving further details. 40 more people are due to be tried in the next couple of days for similar crimes at the special court in the state capital of Nyala, it added. The Khartoum government set up the court to try pro-government militiamen accused of crimes in Darfur, after undertaking in June to disarm the militias and bring those responsible for human rights violations to justice. In July, 200 militiamen accused of ethnic cleansing in Darfur were tried by the same court with some receiving death sentences. (source: Agence France Press) CHINA: 2 farmers get death sentence for forging fake bill 2 farmers have been sentenced to death and 2 others to life imprisonment by Wenzhou Intermediate People's Court lately for forging fakes bills of up to 7 million yuan(US $ 846,432), the largest case ever reported in Zhejiang Province in terms of the amount of fake bill. The 4, identified as Chen Chaoshuo, Yang Zhilun, Feng Shipi and Miu Chenye, are all farmers from Changnan County in southeast Zhejiang. Court saouces said that the 4 farmers forged in 4 times fake RMB bills of a total of 7 million yuan with face values of 10 yuan and 5 yuan respectively in September, 2003 and were captured by police on March 30 this year when they were shipping the bill to south China's Guangdong Province. (source: Zhejiang News)
