DENPASAR, Indonesia, 26 August 2003 — Indonesian prosecutors yesterday urged judges to sentence militant Mukhlas to death for authorizing, planning and funding the Bali bombings which killed 202 people last October.
It was the third death sentence they have requested for the worst terror attack since Sept. 11, 2001, in the United States.
Judges have so far passed one verdict in the series of trials, sentencing Mukhlas’s younger brother Amrozi to face a firing squad.
“There is nothing that can alleviate the sentence... the defendant has never regretted his actions and even felt correct and satisfied,” prosecutor Putu Indriyati told the judges in Mukhlas’s case.
Indriyati told the court that Mukhlas —who said “Thank you” to prosecutors after the hearing closed for the day — has been proven guilty of engaging in terrorism and possessing weapons and explosives. Judges have yet to pass a verdict on him. Mukhlas raised both hands and sighed when the death demand was made. Australian and Indonesian spectators, including some families of victims, applauded loudly. The blasts killed 88 Australians.
Police say Mukhlas is an operations chief of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the Al-Qaeda linked regional terror group blamed for the Bali blasts and for a string of other bloody attacks.
JI’s motive in bombing two nightclubs packed with Western tourists on the resort island was to avenge attacks against Muslims in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Mukhlas, also known as Ali Ghufron, has said he has no regrets over the bombings “because the Jews led by the United States and Israel have already declared war against Muslims.”
Amrozi was sentenced to death on Aug. 7 but is appealing. Prosecutors have also sought a death sentence for the bombing’s alleged field commander Imam Samudra, who will hear his verdict on Sept. 10.
Calling the bombings a “heinous, immoral and savage” act, Indriyati said that even capital punishment “will not be enough to punish the actions of the defendant.” Reading a 125-page sentence recommendation along with other prosecutors, he described Mukhlas as a cunning defendant who lied to cover up his own involvement and that of others in the attack last Oct. 12.
Prosecutors said the testimony of 35 witnesses showed the defendant had taken part in planning the attack and had attended several preparatory meetings.
They said he had also channeled money totaling $35,500 from Malaysian Wan Min Wan Mat to other suspects to purchase materials.
Wan Mat had testified in the trial by teleconference from Malaysia, where he is in detention. He had said that Al-Qaeda had provided funds to JI and that the bombers were inspired by an edict issued by Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden.
Police have detained 34 Bali suspects, of whom 27 are on trial. Prosecutors say that as “chief of jihad operations in Indonesia,” it was Mukhlas who authorized a proposal from Samudra to stage the attacks.
Mukhlas, 43, has named one of his sons Osama and has testified in a previous trial that he knew Bin Laden well when both were fighting in Afghanistan.
However he has denied he was directly involved in the Bali attack.
“My involvement was only as an ustadz (teacher) and the giver of the money,” he said at a previous session. “I never saw a bomb being assembled.”
Mukhlas said he would present his own defense plea when the court resumes on Sept. 4. His lawyers said they would present a separate plea.
