WASHINGTON, March 3 (UPI) -- The U.S. State Department said Thursday the 30 month sentence imposed on a Muslim cleric for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings is too short.
Spokesman Richard Boucher said though the United States welcomed the sentence handed to Abu Bakar Bashir by an Indonesian court, it was not happy with its length.
"We are disappointed with the results of this trial." He said. "We believe these results are not commensurate with Bashir's culpability."
He noted U.S. respect for the Indonesian judicial system, however, and that appeals were possible.
A South Jakarta district court found Bashir guilty of involvement in the "evil conspiracy" that resulted in the bombing of two Bali nightclubs on Oct. 12, 2002, that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. He was cleared of terrorism charges, including links to the bombing of Jakarta's J.W. Marriott Hotel in 2003 that killed 12 people, however.
Legal experts expressed no surprise at the sentence since shaky evidence and fickle witnesses plagued the prosecution, which had asked for an eight-year sentence.
