A WouldBe Indonesian Female Suicide Bomber Has Been Sentenced to Prison
A would-be female suicide bomber in Indonesia was sentenced last Friday to seven-and-a-half years in jail for trying to detonate an explosive device outside the country's presidential palace. Prosecutors had asked a court to send Dian Yulia Nova, 28, to 10 years in prison, but her lawyer said that the sentence was reduced because she admitted to the charges, Reuters reports. Her lawyer added that the verdict came early, as Dian was expected to give birth to a child in early September. The case has raised fears of growing radicalization in Indonesia. Arrested last December alongside her husband, Dian had been planning to detonate a pressure-cooker bomb  similar to the one used in the 2013 Boston marathon bombing  outside the presidential palace in Indonesia. The next hearing for her husband's case is scheduled for Sept. 6, reports Reuters. In an exclusive interview with TIME earlier this year, Dian revealed how she was radicalized by individuals related to the Islamic State group ISIS, whom she met on social media during her time as a domestic worker in Taiwan. She and her husband went on to plan the attack on the presidential palace, on the orders of infamous ISIS-linked fighter Bahrun Naim, until their arrest by Indonesia's elite antiterrorism unit. Indonesia faces growing security threats and challenges from radicalized individuals, including fighters returning from ISIS territory and overseas migrant workers. There are also concerns over the country's levels of tolerance in the wake of an bitterly divisive mayoral election campaign in Jakarta and the jailing of its Christian, ethnically Chinese former governor on blasphemy charges in a case seen as a victory for Islamic extremists.