Jakarta
The accused spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, a militant group tied to al Qaida, will be freed from an Indonesian prison within a few weeks. The Indonesian Supreme Court this week ruled that the three-year prison sentence given last fall was inappropriate because the cleric, Abu Bakar Bashir, was convicted only of minor immigration violations, not of terrorism. Al Qaida operatives in captivity have said Bashir was the mastermind of the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing, which killed more than 200 people, but he was acquitted of that crime. The U.S. said this week it would provide new evidence against Bashir if Indonesia reopened the case.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
How China is battling the chikungunya virusUnder The Radar Thousands of cases of the debilitating disease have been found in the country
-
Deep thoughts: AI shows its math chopsFeature Google's Gemini is the first AI system to win gold at the International Mathematical Olympiad
-
Book reviews: 'Face With Tears of Joy: A Natural History of Emoji' and 'Blood Harmony: The Everly Brothers Story'Feature The surprising history of emojis and the brother duo who changed pop music
