Indonesian court bans IS-linked group behind deadly attacks
JAKARATA: An Indonesian court on banned a local extremist network responsible for a series of deadly terror attacks on home soil, significantly expanding police powers to charge members and freeze funding.
Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group (IS), was involved in a deadly 2016 Jakarta attack and a wave of suicide bombings in May in the country’s second-biggest city Surabaya – according to authorities.
Two families – including girls aged nine and 12 – blew themselves up at churches and a police station, killing 13.
Presiding Judge Aris Bawono Langgeng told the South Jakarta District Court that the organisation comprising almost two dozen extremist groups was a “forbidden corporation”, adding that its activities and those of other groups affiliated with it or IS are banned.
The case against JAD was brought by government prosecutors and appeared aimed at empowering stronger police action against militants.
In 2008, a court banned Jemaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaeda affiliated network responsible for the Bali bombings in 2002.
The group was obliterated by a sustained crackdown by Indonesia’s counterterrorism police.
The ruling will beef up police powers to go after JAD, which has been connected to a series of other plots in Indonesia, including a firebomb attack on a church that killed a toddler and a plan to launch a Christmas-time suicide bombing.
Prosecutors welcomed the deci- sion and said it could set a precedent for disbanding other IS-affiliated organisations in Indonesia.
Asludin Hatjani, a lawyer representing the group, said he would not appeal, but had previously protested that banning the group would allow police to arrest alleged members who had not committed an act of terrorism.
Formed in 2015, JAD is thought to be composed of some two dozen Indonesian groups that have pledged allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, according to the US State Department, which last year designated it as an extremist network.
The group’s spiritual leader Aman Abdurrahman was sentenced to death last month for his role in the Jakarta terror attack on Jan 14, 2016, that left four attackers and four civilians dead. —