JURIST - Paper Chase: Indonesia reduces sentences of Bali bombing convicts

[JURIST] Indonesia reduced the sentences of 10 Islamic militants on Friday for their roles in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings and the 2005 Bali bombings [BBC reports]. Originally serving between eight to 18 years, six of the militants received a sentence reduction of five months, while the other four received a reduction of two months. Victims and survivors of the attacks criticized the reduction, but Indonesian Justice and Human Rights Minister Andi Matalatta defended the reduction as a constitutional right afforded to all criminals regardless of their crimes, adding that 64,000 others inmates received sentence reductions and 6,600 others were freed as part of Indonesia's prisoner remission program conducted annually on August 17 to mark the country's independence from Dutch colonial rule. Prisoners in good standing typically receive a remission, unless they are death row inmates or serving life sentences.

In June, Indonesian police confirmed the arrest [JURIST report] of leading terrorist suspect Abu Dujana [BBC profile] and seven other terrorist suspects who composed the main body of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) [MIPT backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. JI, which was responsible for both Bali bombings, is also blamed for the 2004 bombings of the US embassy in Jakarta [Wikipedia backgrounder]. AP has more.

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