JAKARTA, Indonesia – An Indonesian court says a retired Saudi Arabian teacher did not finance last year’s attacks on two luxury hotels.
A panel of judges at the South Jakarta District Court, however, sentenced Al Khelaiw Ali Abdullah to 18 months in prison for violating immigration laws.
The July 17, 2009, attacks on the J.W. Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in the capital, Jakarta, killed seven people and injured more than 50.
Abdullah, who ran an Internet cafe in Indonesia, was arrested soon after the blasts on suspicion of lending money to the perpetrators.
The court found him innocent of those charges Monday. But it said he violated immigration laws in the world’s most populous Muslim country and would have to spend time behind bars.