Ba'asyir Jailed for 15 Years.

Yesterday, the Judges of the District Court of South Jakarta have sentenced radical Islamic cleric Abubakar Ba'asyir to 15 years in prison for planning, motivating and collecting funds for military training of radical people in Indonesia.
 
The said Court Verdict was passed based on Articles 7 and 14 of the Terrorism Law No.15 Year 2003.

The question is : Will this end terrorism in Indonesia ?

In my opinion, the prison sentence would have an impact on Ba'asyir's network, however it would not end terrorism. 

Not only because terrorism has grown independently in Indonesia but also because it has many roots here i.e. Poverty, Injustice and Corruption.

As long as there are so many beggars/tramps on the street and so many poor people living in the slum area in many parts of Jakarta and other places in the country, as long as the courts punished big money robbers lighter than petty thieves, as long as education and health are still expensive, as long as bribery is a common practice, as long as politicians, government officials only think about themselves and their parties, there would always be people who would protest  violently/barbarically or even take the laws into their own hands.

Sources :
1)  Bashir Sentenced to 15 Years (The Jakarta Globe)
2)  Baasyir: Indonesia Bela Amerika (Kompas)

Long Distance Testimony

The trial of Abubakar Ba'asyir at the District Court of South Jakarta last week was filled with harsh protests by Ba'asyir as the Defendant and his team of lawyers.

One of the things they protested was the Council of Judges's decision to allow the Witnesses to testify without appearing physically in Court but through teleconference.

In this regards I would like to share what blogger-lawyer Anggara has wrote on his blog: http://anggara.org.
Anggara quoted Hukumonline as saying that the use teleconference in the trial violate the Criminal Prosedural Law (KUHAP) which stipulated that Witnesses must testify by appearing pshycally in Court.

The KUHAP may not mention about the possibility of using Teleconference in Court Trial, but there is the Witness and Victim Law No. 13/2006 with enable the Hearing of Witness to be carried out through teleconference.
And in this case, the Prosecutors have stated that the purpose of witness hearing through teleconference is to safeguard the safety of the Witness.

The said Law does not specifically rule that the teleconference witness hearing can be done on condition that the witness is under protection, but for the sake of fair trial it would better if the council of judges ask the Prosecutor to explain why must the hear be done through teleconference, and allow the defendant and his lawyers to raise their objection.

Although in the end the judges would decide to allow the teleconference, but the defendant and his lawyers would not be protesting very harshly because they have already been given the chance to raise objection.