When Indonesian radical Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir spoke for the final time last month at his terrorism trial, he continued his venomous rants against the United States, accusing it of waging war against Islam in his country and framing him of charges of forming a terrorist army.
Hundreds of his supporters in the gallery and the car parks of the South Jakarta District Court - young men in skullcaps and young women in burqas - raised their fists and shouted 'Allahu akbar' ('God is great').
But when the same court convicted Bashir on Thursday of organising and funding a terrorist training camp in the remote Indonesian province of Aceh and sentenced him to 15 years in prison, the defiance was strikingly missing. The 700 or so Bashir supporters gathered outside the court dispersed without incident after the panel of judges handed down their verdict - which took nearly five hours to read.
It may have been the fatigue from standing in the hot sun all morning, or the presence of 3,000 heavily armed police and soldiers, that took the fight out of Bashir's band of faithful followers. But most likely it's the fact that the firebrand cleric has long worn out his welcome among the Indonesian public, which explains the pathetic turnout in support and the muted public response to the verdict.
'He's not attractive at all. The Indonesian public is not worried about him, but other things: corruption, [exam] cheating scandals in the public schools,' said Dharmawan Ronodiporo, an adviser to security minister Djoko Suyanto. 'I think the Indonesian public is saying: 'Screw him - there are real issues to deal with.''
Indeed, Bashir's appeal among Indonesia's 190 million Muslims could not be any lower.
