Indonesian militant linked to IS imprisoned for seven years

A court sentenced the leader of an Islamic State group-affiliated militant network in Indonesia to seven years in prison on Monday for involvement in smuggling guns from the southern Philippines.

Presiding Judge Siti Jamzanah said it had been proved that Zainal Anshori committed a criminal act of terrorism. She said the 43-year-old, his brother Zainal Hasan, who on Monday was sentenced to five years prison, and another militant travelled to a town in northern Sulawesi closest to the Indonesian border with the southern Philippines to collect a cache of weapons including automatic rifles.

Court documents said Anshori also attempted to set up a jihadist training camp in eastern Indonesia.

Anshori was arrested in April, sparking a failed reprisal attack against police in East Java province which ended with six militants killed in a gun battle.

The network Anshori led, Jamaah Anshorut Daulah, is believed responsible for a 2016 attack in Jakarta that killed eight people including the four attackers. The US last year designated it as a global terrorist organisation.