Death sentence given to radical cleric who led Jakarta bombing
Radical cleric Amatn Abdurrahman has been sentenced to death by an Indonesian court for ordering Islamic State(is) affiliated militants to carry out attacks,includingthejanuary 2016 suicide bombing at a Starbucks in Jakarta.
Abdurrahman, who police and prosecutors said is a key ideologue for IS militants in the world’s largest Muslim nation, kneeled and kissed the floor as the panel of five judges yesterday announced the sentence.
Counter-terrorism officers guarding him uttered “praise be to God”.
Several hundred paramilitary and counter-terrorism police secured the Jakarta court where the trial took place.
Fears of attacks had 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 said 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 sentence for terrorism-related offences, resulted in several attacks in Indonesia in 2016 and last year.
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 two-year-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”, presiding Judge Ahmad Zaini said.
The court said there was no reason for leniency.
It gave defence lawyers seven days to consider lodging an appeal.
Abdurrahman has refused to recognise the authority of the court, part of his rejection ofseculargovernmentinindonesia and desire to replace it with shariah law.
Adhe Bhakti, an analyst at the Centre for Radicalisation and De-radicalisation Studies in Jakarta, said it was 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 coordinate well.”
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. The suicide bombings in Surabaya last month killed 26 people.
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