Heru Andriyanto, Jakarta – A court in Jakarta on Tuesday sentenced the father-in-law of Noordin M Top to five years in prison for harboring the slain terrorist mastermind and helping him evade arrest.
Baharudin Latif, 55, also known as Baridin, was charged by the South Jakarta District Court for violating Article 13 of the Anti-Terrorism Law. Presiding judge Didik Setyo Handono read out the verdict.
Later in the day, the court sentenced Baridin's son, Ata Sabiq Alim, 24, to four and a half years in prison on the same charges.
Baridin consented to Noordin marrying his daughter, Arina Rahmah, at his Cilacap home in Central Java in 2006. Arina, one of Noordin's many wives, bore him two children. Baridin kept the marriage secret from neighbors, according to the court.
Baridin, head of the Al Muaddib Islamic Boarding School in Cilacap, also provided financial assistance to Noordin, even selling his rice field for Rp 4 million ($448) to finance his activities.
The five-year sentence imposed on Baridin is a year less than what prosecutors demanded. The defendant's counsel, Nurlan, welcomed the shorter jail term and said he would not appeal the sentence.
"I would like to compare today's verdict to the conviction of Saefudin Zuhri, who stood trial for similar charges of concealing information about Noordin," the lawyer said on Tuesday.
"The prosecution demanded 10 years for Saefudin and the judges sentenced him to eight years," he said. "In this regard, the jail term for Baridin is good enough for us."
Saefudin, a relative of Baridin, was convicted for his role in the Jakarta hotel bombings. He introduced Arina to Noordin and was witness to their wedding. Experts believe Noordin, who was killed in a police raid in Solo in September 2009, used marriage to hide from police, taking advantage of a "culture of protection" for him and his terrorist group.
Baridin was arrested in July last year, shortly after the bombings of two luxury hotels in Jakarta, of which Noordin was alleged to be the mastermind. During the raid on Baridin's house, police uncovered explosives buried in his backyard.
However, he told the court that he knew his son-in-law as Andi Abdul Halim, not Noordin, and was unaware that his daughter had married a fugitive who led a series of suicide bombing attacks starting in 2002.
But according to prosecutors, Baridin joined the outlawed extremist group Islamic State of Indonesia, or NII, which pushed for an Islamic caliphate across Southeast Asia.
They also said Baridin joined Jemaah Islamiyah, a regional terrorist network of which Noordin was a leader, in 1995.
Baridin reportedly led a local cell of JI in 2000, before embarking on a jihad, or holy war, to Maluku, Ambon, when the province was wracked by religious strife.