Militant Sentenced in Immigration Case

A member of the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist network who is suspected of plotting to crash a plane into Singapore’s airport was sentenced to 18 months in prison in Indonesia for immigration violations, officials said Tuesday.

A district court in Dumai, on Sumatra island, sentenced Mas Selamat Kastari of Singapore for not having the documents needed to travel in Indonesia but did not rule on whether he should be extradited to Singapore as requested by authorities there, a court official said.

Singapore accuses Kastari, 42, of being the commander of the Singaporean arm of Jemaah Islamiah and of plotting to attack U.S. targets in the city-state and crash a hijacked plane into Changi Airport.

Jemaah Islamiah has been accused of carrying out the October bombings in Bali, Indonesia, that killed 202 people, as well as plotting a series of attacks against Western targets across Southeast Asia.

Indonesian officials arrested Kastari in February on Bintan island, a short ferry ride south of Singapore.

He is believed to have fled Singapore shortly after the arrest there of 13 suspected Jemaah Islamiah members in late 2001.

Last month, Kastari said during the Jakarta trial of the suspected spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah, cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, that he was a member of the group.