Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, accused of leading an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group, was sentenced by an Indonesian court on Thursday to two and a half years in jail on conspiracy charges related to the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing that killed 202 people.

As proceedings opened, about 1,000 policemen secured the court building with a dozen heavily armed officers escorting Ba'asyir into the courtroom, where he smiled and, looking toward reporters, claimed that US President George Bush was "evil". The 66-year-old cleric has consistently maintained that Bush, whom he has referred to as "the enemy of Allah", has pressured Indonesia to jail him to stop him campaigning for Islamic law.

"I'm ready to listen," Ba'asyir said before the five-judge panel opened the proceedings. "If I'm released, the trial has been fair. If not, this has not been a fair trial. I will fight any sentence against me."

Neither Ba'asyir, his supporters who packed the public gallery nor the scores of reporters present had long to wait. Though the reading of the 250-page verdict was expected to take until late afternoon, within minutes the court had read out its sentence.

The radical preacher was cleared of more serious allegations that he ordered the Bali bombing but was handed a 30-month prison term under Indonesia's anti-terrorism law after being found guilty of involvement in a "sinister conspiracy".

The primary charge against Ba'asyir accused him of planning the 2003 suicide bombing of the JW Marriott Hotel that killed 12 people and inspiring his followers to carry out the attack. But the judges said there were neither evidence nor witnesses to prove that the radical cleric, who was in jail at the time of the attack, took part in a conspiracy to bomb the Marriott.

Three other charges accused Ba'asyir of conspiring in terrorist acts, including the Bali bombing, and of hiding information about the attacks.

Australia, which lost a number of its nationals in the Bali bombing and an attack on its embassy in Jakarta last year, will ask Indonesian prosecutors to appeal for a longer jail term. "It's of some concern to us that the sentence is as short as it is. We're disappointed about that. We'd like to see a longer sentence," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told Australian television.

Before the verdict came down, prosecutors had already dropped the main charge, which could theoretically carry the death penalty, that Ba'asyir and his supporters planned the bombings. Prosecutors demanded only an eight-year sentence.

Chief defense lawyer Mohammad Assegaf said last week that there was not a shred of evidence against his client. "I am convinced he will be released, if there is no intervention, because none of the witnesses have incriminated him," he said.

Assegaf pointed out that the Central Jakarta District Court in 2003 had cleared Ba'asyir of terror-related charges, including the accusation that he was the leader of the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a verdict the Supreme Court later upheld. Assegaf slammed the prosecution's attempts to prove that Ba'asyir was the leader of the radical Islamic group as a "rape of the principles of justice".

Jakarta has come under pressure from both the United States and Australia to act against Ba'asyir, and the trial heard evidence that Indonesia was asked to hand Ba'asyir over to US authorities. The fiery Muslim preacher has claimed that the trial was held because of pressure on Indonesia from the "enemies of Islam", mainly the US president. That came after one of Bush's former interpreters testified that he attended a meeting in Jakarta at which a presidential envoy asked Indonesia to arrest Ba'asyir and hand him over to the US.

Within minutes of the verdict, one of several press attaches at the US Embassy in Jakarta, Max Kwak, issued a response to the announcement. The United States was disappointed at the length of Ba'asyir's sentence, given the gravity of the charges on which he was convicted, said Kwak, but he added, "We respect the independence and judgment of the Indonesian courts."

Australia and the United States consider Ba'asyir to be the spiritual head of the JI terrorist group and responsible for acts of terror in Indonesia. Ba'asyir has repeatedly denied any links to terrorism, although he has admitted being an admirer of Osama bin Laden and has called the Bali bombers misguided but praiseworthy fighters.

From December 2001 Jakarta was pressed to take a stand against international terrorism and arrest Ba'asyir. However, the only "evidence" against him was based on information gained through the intense interrogation of mostly uncharged, untried political detainees rounded up in post-September 11, 2001, terrorist dragnets.

The Indonesian government refused to meet the US demands, claiming there was no basis in Indonesian law to act on its requests. But two weeks after the Bali bombings police arrested Ba'asyir on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities in Indonesia. The charges against him related to a series of bombings that preceded, and did not include, the Bali bombing, but Ba'asyir quickly gained international notoriety in the media for his links to the alleged perpetrators of the Bali attack. He has been behind bars ever since.

Ba'asyir was first indicted for treason, terrorism and immigration violations, but in a separate trial last year a lower court acquitted him of heading the JI and found him guilty of only immigration offenses and document forgery. He served an 18-month prison sentence and was arrested on his release from jail.

Throughout this latest five-month trial, however, only one witness testified that Ba'asyir was the spiritual leader of the JI. Several other witnesses said they knew nothing about his alleged terrorism links, with most proclaiming that he was simply an Islamic teacher. Many believe it was a mistake to put him on trial without first building a stronger case against him. Many analysts had predicted Ba'asyir would either walk free or receive a prison term far short of the maximum allowed, partly due to the weak case put forward by prosecutors.

In their indictment, prosecutors said that as the JI chief, Ba'asyir had visited one of the group's training camps in the Philippines in 2000 and allegedly relayed a "ruling from Osama bin Laden, which permitted attacks and killings of Americans and their allies".

Yet that argument didn't manage to sway the five-judge panel, which said that Ba'asyir would get credit for time served and could be freed before the end of 2006.

Thursday's verdict is likely to be seen, a tad unfairly perhaps, as a poor reflection on Indonesia's commitment to fight terrorism. More than 10 people have already been convicted in the Marriott bombing and 33 have been accused of involvement in the Bali blasts.

Meanwhile, Ba'asyir's credentials as a fundamentalist Muslim leader are certain to be boosted by the verdict. He and his followers likely will be able to claim that what they said from the outset was true, that Ba'asyir was a victim of "foreign intervention" because of his efforts to uphold Islamic law in Indonesia.

The cleric also has said the prosecution failed to respond to his statement that Bush had ordered the trial. "This basically shows that the prosecution admits this trial was the agenda of Allah's enemies ... The facts and evidence presented to trap me were essentially from Bush's request."

After the Bali bombing, hardline Islamist groups that advocate violence were isolated to a large degree, and the majority of Indonesia's Muslim community still supports religious tolerance and pluralism, though preaching fundamentalism is not illegal.

Ba'asyir has a strong influence on Islamic militants and his preaching on the need to promote Islam in society. For a teacher he certainly had a turn of phrase that could strike terror into the hearts of non-believers. During the trial he warned prosecutors that they would face damnation in the afterlife, adding that God would also punish the judges if they convicted him.

"If the panel of judges are convinced that the prosecutors' charges are intended to aid the infidels who have evil schemes – the United States – the judges are obliged to disavow and categorically reject them to avoid unwanted consequences in the hereafter," he said after his summing-up at the last court session.

Though the image of an old man being persecuted by the West is likely to cut ice only with radicals, his rejection of the legitimacy of the secular state out of hand may cause problems for the government when he is finally released and free to challenge the US and Western dominance he describes as cultural terrorism.

"I reiterate that I only carried out good deeds in accordance with Islamic Sharia law. And Allah's enemies opposed this and accused me of carrying out treason and terrorism," he has claimed.

The sentence, however lenient in Western eyes, may anger even moderate Muslim leaders and nationalist politicians who have long accused authorities of persecuting the cleric because of US pressure.

[Bill Guerin, a Jakarta correspondent for Asia Times Online since 2000, has worked in Indonesia for 19 years in journalism and editorial positions. He has been published by the BBC on East Timor and specializes in business/economic and political analysis in Indonesia.]