‘MARTYR’ FEARS IN DEATH SENTENCE
Cleric directed militants linked to Islamic State suicide bombing at a Starbucks in Jakarta, Indonesia
JAKARTA, INDONESIA •Aradicalcleric, who police and prosecutors say is a key ideologue for ISIL militants in the world’s largest Muslim nation, kneeled and kissed the courtroom floor as he was sentenced to death on Friday while counterterrorism officers guarding him uttered “praise be to God.”
An Indonesian court found Aman Abdurrahman guilty of ordering Islamic State group-affiliated militants to carry out attacks including the January 2016 suicide bombing at a Starbucks in Jakarta.
Aman, 46, who was often photographed scowling during court appearances, told the judges that he did not care about their verdict. Then he bent and kissed the floor in apparent gratitude for their making him a martyr.
“His role was very important in spreading religious outreach online that made his followers conduct bombings,” the chief judge, Ahmad Zaini, told the court in Jakarta. “His followers who read his writings were inspired to commit terrorist acts.”
Several hundred paramilitary and counterterrorism police secured the Jakarta court where the trial took place. Fears of attacks have been elevated in Indonesia after suicide bombings in the country’s second-largest city, Surabaya, last month that were carried out by families including their young children. Police say the leader of those bombers was part of the network of militants inspired by Abdurrahman.
During the trial, prosecutors said Abdurrahman’s instructions from prison, where he was serving a terrorism-related sentence, resulted in several attacks in Indonesia in 2016 and 2017.
They included the Starbucks attack in the capital that killed four civilians and four militants, an attack on a bus terminal in Jakarta that killed three police officers and an attack on a church in Kalimantan that killed a twoyear-old girl. Several other children suffered serious burns from the Kalimantan attack.
The defendant’s “speeches, teachings and instructions have inspired his group and followers to commit criminal acts of terrorism in Indonesia,” said the presiding judge.
The court said there was no reason for leniency. It gave defence lawyers seven days to consider lodging an appeal.
Abdurrahman has refused to recognize the authority of the court, part of his rejection of secular government in Indonesia and desire to replace it with Shariah law.
Adhe Bhakti, an analyst at the Center for Radicalization and De-radicalization Studies in Jakarta, said it’s possible militants could respond to Abdurrahman’s death sentence with reprisal plots.
“His words alone have been able to incite followers to carry out terrorism,” he said. “The security forces must raise awareness and all intelligence services in Indonesia must co-ordinate well.”
Sidney Jones, director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict in Jakarta and an expert on terrorism in Southeast Asia, said that sentencing Aman to death was a mistake, in part because it would enhance his stature and make him a symbol within the extremist movement.
“This will turn him into a martyr,” she told The New York Times. “Much better to give him life imprisonment.”
“If he had been given a long prison sentence, it’s possible his ideological differences with the most extreme militants could have been used to divide the movement,” she said. “But now that chance has been squandered.”
She pointed out that Aman was an ideological leader, not a fighter, and had no experience in military action.
Indonesia’s deadliest attack was in 2002 on the tourist island of Bali when nightclub bombings carried out by Jemaah Islamiyah militants killed 202 people, mostly foreigners.
In the following decade, Indonesian security forces crushed the al-Qaida linked JI network, killing leaders and bomb makers and arresting hundreds of militants. But a new threat has emerged in the past several years from ISIL sympathizers including Indonesians who travelled to the Middle East to fight with ISIL.
According to Bhatki, there were seven ISIL attacks and three foiled plots in Indonesia in 2017 compared with no attacks in 2015.
According to prosecutors, Abdurrahman founded Jemaah Anshorut Daulah, a network of extremists that pledged allegiance to ISIL and was opposed to Indonesia’s secular government.