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errorism experts and lawmakers said on Wednesday that the country needed a stronger shield against the influence of the Islamic State (IS) movement, despite recent landmark convictions of Indonesian IS members and supporters.

Terrorism expert Noorhuda Ismail said that the government and law enforcement authorities should observe the impact of the West Jakarta District Court'€™s verdicts on Tuesday, which saw seven IS recruits and supporters sentenced to up to five years in prison.

Noorhuda said the government should monitor whether the sanctions deterred other Indonesians from joining terrorist groups or planning attacks.

'€œFive years is a very short time, especially since there is a chance their sentences will be shortened for good behavior. That is why there must be other mechanisms [to counter terrorism],'€ Noorhuda said.

He was referring to Tuah Febriwansyah'€™s five-year prison sentence, the highest of the seven, for violating the 2003 Terrorism Law and the 2008 Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law.

The remaining six convicted included Ahmad Junaidi alias Abu Salman, Ridwan Sungkar and Abdul Hakim, who were sentenced to three to four years in prison for having participated in military training with IS in Syria in 2014.

Junaidi had previously told the The Jakarta Post that he had returned to Indonesia because he was not paid the amount promised by one of the leaders of IS'€™ Indonesian faction, Salim Mubarak Attamimi, aka Abu Jandal Al-Yemeni Al-Indonesi.

Hundreds of Indonesians have fled to Syria to join IS over the past year, pushing the government to act on the group'€™s growing influence in the country.

A fatal attack involving bombing and gunfire near the Sarinah shopping center in Central Jakarta on Jan. 14 was also linked to the group, with the perpetrators allegedly receiving funding from Indonesian fighters in Syria. All four assailants and four civilians were killed, while dozens were injured.

The Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) said in a recent report that the government should experiment with targeted deradicalization programs by developing activities for Indonesians deported from Turkey after being caught trying to enter Syria.

The report states that 60 percent of the deportees are women and children, many of whom have sold all their belongings to travel to the war-torn region.

'€œThe fact that most of them sold everything they had to finance their travel to Turkey gives an opening to the government to provide economic assistance, possibly through local NGOs with experience in community development,'€ the report said.

National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) chief Comr. Gen. Saud Usman Nasution said that it was unlikely the results of the trials would significantly affect prosecutions of terrorists, as verdicts always depended on individual judges'€™ interpretation of existing laws.

'€œWe cannot intervene with the judges and we know that they will judge [the cases] fairly. During the investigation process we always give our all to make sure that [the terrorist suspect] does not go free and gets the sternest sentence possible. However, that itself is extremely subjective,'€ he told the Post.

Saud, who was once head of the police force'€™s counterterrorism unit Densus 88, emphasized that neither the Terrorism Law nor the 2013 Terrorism Funding Law had any articles prohibiting citizens from joining terrorist organizations abroad as foreign fighters.

'€œThere aren'€™t any specific laws against Indonesians becoming foreign terrorist fighters or joining a foreign terrorist group. We have suggested a revision of the 2003 Terrorism Law to include such a clause, as it would be more effective. For example, many of those who have been deported, especially women and children, still want to return [to Syria] and we can'€™t legally stop them. However, this can change if we revise the law,'€ he said.

Separately, Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) lawmaker Nasir Djamil of House of Representatives Commission III overseeing legal affairs said that the Terrorism Law should be amended to include preventive measures to counter local terrorism growth.

However, Nasir, who is also a member of the working committee on revisions to the Criminal Code (KUHP), said it would be better if clauses on terrorism were removed from the KUHP and inserted as a particular revision to the Terrorism Law.

'€œ[The KUHP draft] already includes points [prohibiting] Indonesians from joining paramilitary training abroad with organizations that act as vehicles for terrorism. I have already asked the government to remove such clauses from the KUHP draft and include them in the terrorism bill, but the government has not responded,'€ he said.