Reprisals warning after Bashir verdict

http://au.news.yahoo.com//050303/2/tbrp.html
Friday March 4, 07:35 PM



The nation's top police officer, Mick Keelty, has warned of reprisal attacks against Australians in the wake of the Bali bombing verdict for Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir.

So far, however, the two-and-a-half year sentence delivered to Bashir for his conspiracy role in the Bali blasts which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, has not raised the terror alert.
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said he had received no advice the threat assessment had changed since the Bashir verdict.
"Immediately there is nothing obvious to me that would suggest that the threat level would be reviewed," he said.
"I have not seen anything that suggests that we should review that assessment but if that advice is forthcoming, then it is a matter upon which we would act."

Australians continued to remonstrate against the length of the sentence, viewing it as too lenient, but Mr Keelty warned it may be enough to mobilise Bashir supporters.
Mr Keelty, who played a key role in assisting Indonesian authorities in the wake of the October 2002 bombings in Kuta, said it was not clear how many supporters Bashir had or how many might take up his cause.
Bashir is believed to be the spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist network, which has links to al-Qaeda.
"We will need to listen to the intelligence agencies and no doubt they will be doing updated threat assessments today in light of the conviction," Mr Keelty said.
The federal government has asked its embassy in Jakarta to voice its concern over the sentence to Indonesian authorities.
However, it has repeatedly stressed its disappointment with the jail term is not a criticism of the Indonesian justice system.
Still, Indonesia has gone on the defensive over the growing outcry, urging respect for its judiciary and asking Australia and the US to maintain a sense of perspective.

Labor believes the short sentence may motivate terrorists.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said a harsher sentence would send a message to south-east Asia that those involved with terrorist organisations would be severely penalised.
"This sentence is inadequate," he said.
"Thirty months for a person who heads an organisation which is responsible for the mass murder of more than 200 people is simply not enough."

Some politicians wanted revenge for the pain inflicted from the Bali blast.
"I hope there is a sentence commensurate with the level of death and suffering that was caused by that terrorist act," Treasurer Peter Costello said.

Opposition Leader Kim Beazley called for a life term.
"He has been convicted of a conspiracy that involved the killing of a large number of Australians and others and Indonesians," he said.
"People who do that should spend their lives in jail."
Former magistrate Brian Deegan, who lost his son Josh in the bombings, described the result as a slap in the face.
"It's outrageous, it equates to a bit over a week (in jail) per man, woman and child that were hurt," Mr Deegan said.
"You get no closure out of this, it's absolutely insulting."

Despite the disappointment over the length of the sentence, Mr Keelty pointed out any conviction was a victory.
"The actual conviction is a real milestone and shouldn't be overlooked in terms of what's happened here," he said.
"(Indonesian police) would have seen this as an almost impossible task to convict Bashir so I think they would have been elated about his conviction."