Indonesia seeks ban on IS-linked militant group

JAKARTA: The Indonesian government has asked a court to ban Jemaah Anshorut Daulah (JAD), a militant network linked to the Islamic State (IS) group, hoping to strangle its funding and support.

The network of almost two dozen extremist organisations has been implicated in numerous attacks in Indonesia in the past two years and was designated a terror organisation by the United States last year.

Asludin Hatjani, a lawyer for regional leaders of the militant network, said on Wednesday that they had acknowledged in court that JAD exists, but that it is not a legal entity in Indonesia.

Hatjani said the aim of the government case was to empower stronger police action against JAD, adding that if it was banned, funds and property could be seized and members not actively involved in attacks could be arrested.

In 2008, a Jakarta court banned Jemaah Islamiyah, the alQaeda affiliated network responsible for the Bali bombings in 2002.

The group was obliterated by a sustained crackdown on militants by Indonesia’s counterterrorism police with US and Australian support, but a new threat has emerged in recent years inspired by IS attacks abroad.

The prosecution indictment filed against the ISlinked group accused it of “committing terrorism acts as a corporation”.

It said JAD supporters across Indonesia carried out attacks that killed civilians and police and damaged public facilities.

In May, two families carried out suicide bombings in Surabaya, killing a dozen people and two young girls involved by their parents in one of the attacks. Police said the father was the head of a local JAD cell.

A radical cleric who founded JAD, Aman Abdurrahman, was sentenced to death last month for inciting attacks, including a 2016 suicide bombing at a Starbucks in Jakarta. — AP