Indonesia female suicide bomber jailed
A Jakarta court in Indonesia has sentenced a female suicide bomber to seven and a half years in prison, prosecutors and her lawyer said, the first time a woman has been convicted in Indonesia for planning such an attack.
Dian Yulia Novi, 28, was arrested late last year on suspicion of plotting to blow herself up outside Jakarta’s presidential palace during the changing of the guard. She was arrested along with her husband, Muhamad Nur Solikin.
Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, has seen a surge in homegrown militancy inspired by Islamic State, and has grappled with a series of small-scale attacks in the past two years.
Prosecutors had demanded a 10-year sentence for Novi, whom they said received instructions to carry out the attack from Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian militant believed to be fighting with Islamic State in Syria.
“Her sentence was reduced because she admitted to her actions,” Novi’s lawyer Kamsi told Reporters on Monday. He said the verdict was handed down by East Jakarta District Court on Aug. 25.