Indonesia: An Islamist militant described as the intellectual mastermind of the Bali bombings was sentenced to death yesterday by an Indonesian panel of judges.
Imam Samudra (33), a computer expert who fought alongside Afghan mujahideen and brought jihad home to his native Indonesia, punched the air as the sentence was read out.
His defiance was not a surprise. He showed no remorse.
As police hurried him out of the court, he sneered at the foreign photographers who closed in for a parting shot.
"Go to hell you infidels," Samudra yelled in English.
He is the second Bali suspect to be sentenced for the bombings, which killed more than 200 people last October. He saw the bombings as a revenge attack on the US for its destruction of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
- (Guardian Service)