TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Jihad website owner gets five years over hotel bombs
The owner of arrahmah
Change Size
T
he owner of arrahmah.com, which publishes articles and pictures advocating jihad against the West, was sentenced to five years in prison on Tuesday for his role in the 2009 bombings in Jakarta’s Kuningan area.
Muhammad Jibriel Abdul Rahman was found guilty of forgery and of hiding information about terrorist activities by the South Jakarta District Court.
Jibriel’s supporters replied to the verdict with deafening chants of “Allahuakbar”. Some of his supporters said Jibriel was a journalist who was persecuted by law enforcement officials.
Jibriel said he would appeal the verdict.
An article in arrahmah.com said the verdict was “wicked” and that Jibriel’s fight to prove his innocence “was not over yet.”
“Their key witness, Amir Abdillah, claimed that he did not know me. A case has been fabricated against me because I run an Islamic media outlet,” he said, as quoted by arrahmah.com.
His father, Abu Jibriel, filed a pre-trial lawsuit contesting the police’s arrest and detention of his son in September, but it was rejected by the court.
The court has now convicted three people — Supono, Rohmat Puji Prabowo and Aris Susanto — for connections to slain Malaysian terrorist leader Noordin M. Top and for involvement in the attacks on Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott hotels last year.
None of the three convicts have appealed their verdicts.
Observers said the government must step up de-radicalization efforts now that more terror suspects are being sentenced to prison.
“The administration has to immediately replace their ‘usual’ methods if they want a penal policy that can de-radicalize terrorist prisoners,” legal expert Rudi Satrio Mukantardjo said Tuesday.
The government should find ways to reform terror convicts while they are serving their prison terms.
“These people have special needs and therefore they should receive special treatment as well,” he said.
Mardigu Wowik Prasantyo, a hypnotherapy expert from the University of Indonesia, said the government must seriously conduct de-radicalization programs.
“Otherwise convicted terrorists will released from prison and return to their old habits,” he said.
He said that a serious de-radicalization program could take less than five years.
Terrorist suspects could be involved in a discussion with respected clerics that could change their view of jihad, he added.
In the mean time, he added, the government could take care of the convicted terrorists’ families so they are ready to receive the prisoner at the conclusion of his or her prison sentence.
