Suspect admits he taught at Aceh terror camp

A man on trial for alleged terrorism testified at the West Jakarta District Court on Monday that he taught war strategy at a military training camp in Jantho, Aceh, which the police stormed earlier this year.

Qomarudin, also known as Mustaqim, denied he knew the names of any leaders at the camp.

“I taught them war strategy which I learned from the Internet, not from the Abubakar military camp in South Philippines as the police and the prosecutors alleged,” Mustaqim told the court while testifying for another suspect in the trial, Aman Abdurrahman.

Mustaqim testified that he had known and worked with at the camp a man called Joko Pitono, a senior terrorist shot to death by the police during a raid in Pamulang, near Jakarta, in March. Mustaqim knew Joko by the name of Dulmatin, one of his known aliases.

Mustaqim has been accused of leading the Jantho military training camp, along with Joko Pitono.

The police said Mustaqim and Joko had worked together before at the Abubakar military training camp in the Philippines several years ago.

Joko denied he knew Aman Abdurrahman, a radical Muslim cleric who was imprisoned for his involvement in a bombing in Cimanggis, Bogor, in 2003.

The police said Aman had given Rp 20 million and US$100 to Joko to help finance the Jantho camp.

In a separate trial at the same court, two police officers, Baihaki and Yulia Zaery, testified on Monday against terror suspect Ismarwan.

The officers said they had been ordered to arrest Ismarwan for allegedly shooting at a house inhabited by foreigners in the Syah Kuala University lecturer housing complex.

It was reported the suspect fired several shots into the house in revenge for alleged attempts by foreigners assisting in the Aceh reconstruction effort to convert local Muslims to Christianity.

The court postponed a hearing session of another terror suspect, Ubaid, because he did not have legal representation. Ubaid’s and Mustaqim’s trials were to resume next Monday.