Spiritual leader behind Bali bombers has jail sentence cut

Indonesian Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, convicted of aiding a paramilitary group out to assassinate the president, has had his jail sentence cut from 15 years to nine. Bashir is considered the spiritual leader behind the group that killed more than 200 people in Bali in 2002.

He was found guilty of helping plan and fund a paramilitary training camp discovered last year in a remote mountainous part of Aceh, whose members sought to assassinate the president, destabilise south-east Asia’s largest economy and turn the officially pluralist country into an Islamic state. No reason was given for the court’s decision.