Based on the precedents established by recent, laughably brief sentences for jihadist attacks, the bar is set quite low for how much time these defendants may serve if they are convicted. Indonesia has a choice here of whether it intends to continue encouraging the repetition and escalation of Islamic supremacist violence by rewarding it with almost non-existent punishments.
“3 in Indonesia Charged With Plotting Suicide Attacks,” by Sara Schonhardt for the New York Times, October 8 (thanks to all who sent this in):
JAKARTA, Indonesia “” The Indonesian police arrested three men on Saturday and accused them of plotting two suicide attacks in the last six months that injured scores of people.
A National Police spokesman, Maj. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam, announced the arrest of one man, Heru Komarudin, at a market in central Jakarta early Saturday. Mr. Komarudin, 31, is wanted on suspicion of plotting a suicide bombing in April at a mosque in a police compound in the West Java town of Cirebon. The explosion sent nails, nuts and bolts flying into the air, injuring dozens of police officers and killing the bomber.
Hours after Mr. Komarudin’s arrest, two men suspected of having links to him and taking part in planning an attack on Sept. 25 were arrested in Bekasi, a suburb of Jakarta. The police said they had confiscated two boxes of suspicious materials from the Bekasi home shared by the two men, one of whom worked as a computer repairman.
The police identified the bomber in the Sept. 25 attack as Achmad Yosepa Hayat, who detonated explosives strapped to his chest, killing himself and injuring more than 20 Christians as they left church in Central Java.
Indonesia, a predominantly Muslim nation, has been struggling with a new, homegrown terrorism threat in which lone militants and small groups wage attacks against the police and minority religious groups.
Mr. Hayat was reportedly a member of Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid, a group founded by the radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir. Mr. Bashir is also the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, a Qaeda-linked militant group that has claimed responsibility for a string of attacks in Indonesia.