Robert Go, Jakarta – Abu Bakar Bashir ended his day in court yesterday in the same way that he had begun it.
Wearing a black jacket, a sarong, a white scarf and the white cap of a Muslim cleric, he urged followers to keep the peace because victory was at hand. "Stay calm. Regardless of the verdict, we have won. Don't be provoked into violence. Show them what real Islamic values are," he had said before the session started.
Supporters of Bashir, who has campaigned openly for the establishment of Islamic law in Indonesia, crammed into the court and milled about outside at the start of the day.
As a panel of five judges, resplendent in their red and black robes, read out witness statements and their final judgments against him, Bashir looked slightly nervous. He gyrated left and right on his swivel defendant's chair.
His general demeanour, however, belied the seriousness of the charges against him: That he was the leader of Jemaah Islamiah terrorist group and had committed treason by sanctioning attacks throughout the region.
Others at the session appeared as bored as usual with the methodical Indonesian courtroom procedure. It took the five judges, who included one woman, nearly seven hours to read their findings. Lawyers yawned, played with their cell phones or read magazines as the judges took turns reading out the 220-page trial record and verdict.
Heads drooped and were then pulled up again among the audience, as one Bashir disciple after another lost control and dozed in air-conditioned comfort.
The police mobilised a security force of hundreds for the trial, but most of the young men – who looked barely old enough to grow moustaches let alone wield machine guns, sticks or riot shields – slumped on their chairs.
The judgment had several climactic moments, however, enough to please everybody.
Some of the 200 people inside began chanting "Allahu Akbar", or "God is great", as presiding judge Muhammad Saleh first declared Bashir acquitted of the most serious charges against him. Outside, another 200 to 300 Bashir supporters started to yell "Free him, free him" as the final judgment neared ever so slowly.
Speakers outside aimed their rhetoric at the usual targets, blaming America and the West for framing Bashir and wanting to wage a war against Islam.
A stunned silence fell over the courtroom, however, when judges decided there was enough evidence to make stick a second, lesser charge against Bashir.
An hour later, after judges said Bashir's punishment was just and should "deter anyone else from committing the same offences", they handed down a fairly lenient four-year jail term.
Some ordinary Indonesians thought Bashir got off lightly. Supri, 35, a Jakarta store assistant, told Reuters: "Bashir is evil, he is against human rights. I support the judges' decision, but I think he deserved more than that."
Mr Ken Conboy, head of RMA Indonesia, a Jakarta-based security risk company, said: "I think a lot of people, they were looking at this as a litmus test to see how serious the government was. Four years, considering he'll probably get [time] off for good behaviour, is more or less a glorified slap on the wrist."