Australia, US fault sentence for cleric

WASHINGTON -- The United States and Australia expressed concern yesterday at what they said was a lenient punishment handed down in Indonesia against the alleged leader of Southeast Asia's most dangerous terrorist network.

Abu Bakar Bashir, accused of leading the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah, was sentenced yesterday to 30 months in prison for conspiracy involving the Bali bombings in 2002 that killed 202 people. The 66-year-old cleric was cleared on more serious terrorism-related charges and could be released before the end of 2006 because of credit for time served.

''We're disturbed by the message sent by the relatively brief sentence," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. ''We think that the possibility that . . . the person responsible for these bombings could go free after a sentence of only 30 months is indeed cause for concern."

But Boucher emphasized that the United States ''respects" the independence of Indonesian courts and welcomes the conviction, which he said was announced following serious efforts on the part of the Indonesian government to bring those responsible for the Bali attack to justice.

A former contract translator for the State Department testified in Bashir's defense, saying in the Jakarta courtroom that US officials put political pressure on Indonesia to arrest Bashir, bolstering Bashir's contention that US pressure prompted his prosecution.

Indonesian authorities have protested that the United States refused requests to make available two terrorism suspects in US custody who could have linked Bashir more directly to terrorist activities. US officials have responded that making the witnesses available could have compromised their intelligence-gathering.

Indonesian prosecutors had asked judges to sentence Bashir to eight years in prison. They were hoping to prove that he was directly responsible for ordering the bombing of a Marriott Hotel that killed 12 people -- which occurred while Bashir was in jail -- and the Bali attack. But the judges ruled that prosecutors had not presented enough evidence to prove those charges. Instead, they convicted Bashir on a single charge of conspiracy, ruling he had given his blessing to the Bali bombers.

Bashir's lawyers, who successfully beat back earlier terrorism-related charges, say they will appeal the conviction.

Australia, which lost 88 citizens in the Bali attack, has urged Indonesian prosecutors to appeal the sentence.

''We still feel outraged about what happened in Bali back in October 2002," Alexander Downer, Australia's foreign minister, told reporters in Melbourne.