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.
IS recruiter, supporters arrested
An individual suspected of being the mastermind behind the recruitment and facilitation of Indonesians to join the outlawed Islamic State (IS) movement, also known as ISIL and ISIS, in Syria was arrested by police on Saturday
Change Size
A
n individual suspected of being the mastermind behind the recruitment and facilitation of Indonesians to join the outlawed Islamic State (IS) movement, also known as ISIL and ISIS, in Syria was arrested by police on Saturday.
The arrest came after police foiled an earlier attempt by six people to depart to Syria.
The National Police's Densus 88 counterterrorism squad and the Jakarta Police arrested the six residents from Makassar, South Sulawesi, including a 10-year-old girl, at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, at 3 a.m. on Saturday.
'They have been taken to the Densus 88 headquarters at the National Police,' airport police chief Sr. Comr. Chuzaini Patoppoi said.
The police arrested the six individuals, who were scheduled to board Qatar Airlines flight 959, after they were caught using fake documents.
'The information in the passports conflicted with their [real] identities,' said Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto. 'How did they obtain the passports? They were from Bulukumba regency and stayed in Jakarta [before trying to fly to Syria]. Of course there is someone who facilitated them.'
Based on the suspicion, the police conducted another operation and arrested a man identified as MA in a house in Cibubur, East Jakarta, at 9 p.m. on Saturday, he said.
'MA is the one facilitating the six Indonesians to leave for Syria. MA is working as their sponsor. We have arrested him and confiscated [some evidence],' he told a press conference at the Jakarta Police's headquarters in Central Jakarta.
Rikwanto said MA flew the six individuals from Makassar, South Sulawesi, to Jakarta on Dec. 23.
'Then, they stayed in a house in Cibubur. We have searched the house where they were staying, he added.
MA is also suspected of taking the six suspects to the airport at 11 p.m. on Friday.
Among the evidence seized from the house were cell phones, MA's bank-account documents, religious books as well as manuals on how to fight Densus 88.
MA claimed he had dispatched 10 people to Syria in September, one of whom had died. The deceased was identified as Fikrul Azrul Syahril, according to Jakarta Police violent crime detectives (Jatanras) chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Herry Heryawan.
Rikwanto said there was a possibility that MA brainwashed the six suspects into joining the IS movement. 'They could have been told that joining the movement was the quickest way to get to heaven.'
The police are still questioning MA, who works as an office supplies distributor.
Of the six people arrested at the airport, three of them were related, according to Herry. 'They are a family, [consisting of] a father, a mother and a little girl.'
The father has been identified as 36-year-old Muhammad Imran alias Abdul Jabbar Rauf Sutarman, and the mother as 34-year-old Nurleli alias Ratna Pratiwi Sulaiman.
The family was planning to permanently relocate to Syria.
'They even sold their house. They did not bring big suitcases. They indeed wanted to migrate there and did not plan on returning [to Indonesia],' he said. 'They said that they wanted to uphold Islamic law. According to them, they can truly adhere to Islamic law there.'
The other three individuals were identified as Ashar Jamil Lahae, Muhammad Ashar Bahtiar and Ahmad Abdullah Halido Bunaha, with ages ranging from 17 to 48 years old.
Newly appointed National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) chief Comr. Gen. Saud Usman Nasution previously said that the recruitment of IS fighters from Indonesia had jumped significantly between June and October.
An estimated 514 Indonesians have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight with the IS movement, according to Saud.
The government has declared the IS movement an illegal organization as its ideologies run counter to that of Pancasila.
But the prohibition has no force of law. Unlike in Malaysia and Singapore, where IS movement supporters can be charged and detained upon their departure to the combat zone, local authorities still have no legal basis to do so.
Many fear that returning Indonesian combatants from Syria and Iraq may launch terror attacks here after gaining combat experience, tactical skills, weapons knowledge, deeper ideological commitment and international connections.
