Uighurs face terror charges
JAKARTA: Four foreigners with counterfeit Turkish passports, thought to be ethnic Uighurs from China, are among seven suspects to be trialled in Indonesia for terrorist activities within a month, said their lawyers.
Ashludin Hatjani, one of the lawyers, said the dossiers of the suspects are now complete and the police have handed over the documents to the North Jakarta Prosecutors’ Office. The seven were charged under the 2003 Anti-terrorism Law for “having an intention to join” the Mujahideen Indonesia Timur group led by the leader Santoso, one of the most-wanted terrorist suspects in the country who has been linked in the past to Jemaah Islamiyah, a militant group regarded as the Southeast Asian wing of al-Qaeda.
The suspected militants were arrested in September last year while on their way to the town of Poso in Central Sulawesi province in central Indonesia, the purported stronghold of the Santoso group. “Our clients allegedly provided assistance to the Santoso group in the form of money or goods,” Mr Ashludin said.
The four suspects possess forged Turkish travel documents and are believed to be Uighurs because they speak Uighur insted of Turkish. While both the Turkish and Chinese embassies in Jakarta refuse to recognise the suspects’ nationalities, they will go on trial as Turks next month in North Jakarta’s District Court. If found guilty, all seven will face life sentences.
Uighurs are a Muslim ethnic group of Turkish origin. In China, the majority live in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region where scores of violent incidents linked to separatist movements have been reported in recent years.
The mountainous areas of Sulawesi Island are known to be a magnet for Islamist radicals following sectarian conflict between Muslims and Christians in Poso between 1998 and 2001.
In December, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno warned that at least 110 foreigners identified as Islamic State militants have been detected in Poso, a development he called “very worrying”.