CLERIC ‘PLANNED ATTACKS FROM JAIL’
▶ Indonesian founder of ISIL-linked group alleged to have plotted suicide bombings for followers to carry out
An Indonesian court charged Muslim cleric Aman Abdurrahman yesterday in connection with allegations he masterminded a series of attacks in the Muslim-majority nation, including a deadly 2016 gun and suicide bomb assault in Jakarta, from his jail cell.
Abdurrahman arrived in a Jakarta courtroom under police escort and armed officers stood guard outside as prosecutors read out allegations against him.
According to the charge document, he was on trial for “planning and/or mobilising others to carry out terrorist acts ... to create an atmosphere of terror among the public”.
Prosecutor Anita Dewayani told the court that Abdurrahman had pledged allegiance to ISIL in 2014 and then urged others to undertake a series of attacks.
She cited one alleged plot for a “Paris-style attack” targeting foreigners, particularly French and Russian citizens.
Ms Dewayani read out the names of the victims of some of the attacks that Abdurrahman is accused of masterminding, including one in January 2016 in which eight people were killed, including four attackers, after an assault by suicide bombers and gunmen in the Indonesian capital.
She also alleged he was behind a suicide attack last year that killed three police officers at a Jakarta bus station and the bombing of a church in Samarinda on Borneo island that wounded four children.
Abdurrahman, who wore orange prison clothes with a checked scarf tied around his head, told the court he understood the charges and did not object to the indictment.
His lawyer was not available for comment.
The cleric and ideologue is the founder of ISIL-linked Jamaah Ansharut Daulah, a group the United States has designated as a “terrorist organisation”.
He was re-arrested by police last year after serving time in prison for setting up a militant training camp in the Indonesian province of Aceh.
Abdurrahman had reportedly also managed to keep spreading his radical messages on social media from jail.
“To put it generally, he is the mastermind behind many of the terrorist acts in Indonesia,” Ms Dewayani said. The maximum penalty for conviction on such charges is death by firing squad.
Prosecutors have asked for the trial to be adjourned until February 23, when they plan to present witnesses.
The group founded by Abdurrahman has ties to ISIL and was designated a terrorist operation by the United States