03/18/2019 Indonesia (International Christian Concern) – The court in West Jakarta sentenced a married couple to prison last Thursday for their involvement in suicide bombings on three churches and police headquarters in Surabaya last May.
A suspected leader of the Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) militant group in East Java, Agus Satrio Widodo, and his wife Damayanti, are accused of hiding some of the unused explosives intended for the attacks on three churches and a police headquarters that eventually killed 24 people.
BenarNews reports that presiding Judge Agus Setiawan ruled “The bombings were the work of JAD and designed to create the atmosphere of terror. The defendant Agus, as the chair of JAD in the Jombang area, cannot be absolved from them.”
The suspects were to receive 12 years in jail for Agus and five years for his wife, but the judges said their expressions of remorse mitigated the final decision and gave him eight years and his wife three years and four months instead.
Agus and Damayanti are linked to the series of attacks in May 2018, when two radicalized families carried out suicide bombings attacks on Immaculate St. Mary Catholic Church, Indonesia Christian Church, Surabaya Central Pentecost Church, and a police station in Surabaya, killing themselves and other 15 bystanders.
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