JAKARTA
The Bali Times

An Indonesian man was sentenced to eight years in jail by a Jakarta court on Tuesday for sheltering terror mastermind Noordin Mohammed Top before the Malaysian fanatic was killed by police last September.

Syaifudin Zuhri, 39, hid and abetted Noordin as he planned twin suicide attacks on luxury hotels in the capital last year that killed seven people, the South Jakarta District Court found.

“Syaifudin Zuhri has been proven legally and convincingly guilty in assisting, accommodating and hiding terror convicts. The defendant is sentenced to eight years in prison,” judge Haryanto told the court.

Noordin led a splinter faction of the Jemaah Islamiyah regional terror group until he was killed by police during a raid on a house in Java last year.

He was blamed for a 2003 attack on Jakarta’s Marriott hotel, the 2004 bombing of the Australian embassy, 2005 attacks on tourist restaurants on Bali as well as the suicide blasts at the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton last July.

Zuhri, who was arrested in Central Java province a month before last year’s hotel attacks, also stood as a witness at Noordin’s third marriage in 2006.