21 terror suspects indicted

Twenty-one of the 102 terror suspects arrested earlier this year at their military training ground in Aceh were charged at the West Jakarta District Court on Thursday with terrorism and gun possession and face sentences ranging from six years in prison to death if convicted.

The most notorious suspects among the Aceh Group are Muchtar, Rohman “Aman Abdurrahman” and Muchtar bin Tengku Muchtar Ibrahim, who allegedly played key roles in the training camp.

Muchtar was a member of the Aceh branch of the hard-line Islam Defenders Front. In their indictment, prosecutors said Muchtar became involved in terrorist activity after taking part in indoctrination sessions led by alleged Jamaah Islamiyah leader, the late Joko “Dulmatin” Pitono, in early 2009.

The prosecutors also claimed Muchtar was responsible for a grenade attack on the UNICEF office in Banda Aceh in March 2009. He was also implicated in an attempt to murder Erhard Bauer, the chief of the German Red Cross in Indonesia.

Apart from targeting Bauer, Muchtar and his cohorts also allegedly fired on the house of US citizens Michelle Laila Ahmad and Sarah Ditz Willis in Banda Aceh in 2009.