Jakarta, Indonesia -- A man wounded when Islamic hard-liners launched a deadly attack on his minority sect questioned Indonesia's commitment to religious freedom after he was sentenced to six months in jail - more than some of the attackers caught on video.
Deden Sudjana, a security chief for the minority Muslim Ahmadiyah, said he was trying to defend 20 sect members holed up in a house in the village of Cikeusik when they were surrounded by a frenzied mob of 1,500.
The assailants, carrying wooden clubs, machetes and rocks, killed three people and chanted "God is Great!" as they pummeled their lifeless bodies, police helplessly looking on. Footage of the gruesome attack was posted on YouTube.
Sumartono, presiding judge of the Serang District Court, sentenced Sudjana to six months in jail Monday for resisting police orders to leave the scene and then hitting one of the mob's leaders.
The attackers got three to six months.
"I had hoped the state and the judicial system could protect minorities, but I see now that I was wrong," Sudjana - whose hand was nearly severed by a machete during the Feb. 6. attack - said after the verdict was read out.