Indonesian Terrorist Inspired Deadly Attacks From Prison, Court Hears
AJakarta court has been told a jailed terrorist helped plan a deadly bomb and gun attack on a Starbucks cafe and inspired three other attacks in Indonesia, including a bombing that killed three Police officers. Aman Abdurrahman, 46, is considered Indonesia’s most dangerous extremist and is accused of meeting and inspiring terrorists while in a high-security prison in Indonesia.
He is a former Jemaah Islamiyah member who has pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS). He is facing the death penalty for his role in the attack on Jakarta’s main street, Jalan Thamrin, in January 2016.
Four innocent people died in that attack, including an errand-runner from a nearby office and an Algerian hearing aid specialist. Abdurrahman is accused of plotting the Thamrin attack from his prison cell with Iwan “Rois” Darmawan, who was a co-ordinator of the 2004 bombing of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta. Nine people died in that attack.
The Islamic cleric was already serving a nine-year sentence for funding terrorist training camps in Aceh. An indictment read to South Jakarta District Court says in November 2015 Abdurrahman and Rois were visited in Nusakambangan prison by two Indonesian extremists. Abdurrahman told them that there was an order from the IS caliphate in Syria to conduct a terror attack in Indonesia similar to attacks in Paris that had occurred just days earlier, killing 130 people. The indictment says Rois told them to target “white foreigners” and arranged a cash transfer of 200 million rupiah (FJ$32,000) to pay for the attacks. A cell of extremists were sent money to pay for military training and weapons. They ended up sourcing two crude hand-made pistols.
On January 14, 2016, a suicide bomber entered the Starbucks cafe on Jalan Thamrin and blew himself up next to Austrian audiologist Manfred Stoifl.
Stoifl survived but other attackers killed his colleague, CanadianAlgerian man Tahar Amir Oali. The indictment also said Abdurrahman inspired a bomb attack on a church in East Kalimantan that killed a toddler playing in the church grounds.