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n light of recent terror attacks and the participation of hundreds of Indonesian citizens in the Islamic State (IS) movement overseas, lawmakers are upping the ante on counterterrorism policies.

After more than a year of deadlock in an attempt to revise the 2003 Terrorism Law, the House of Representatives has agreed to a government proposal to allow the prosecution of individuals who join terrorist organizations abroad.

The House also agreed to extend the detention of terrorism suspects to 21 days from the current seven days in solitary confinement during the preliminary investigation phase, during which they will also be denied the right to be accompanied by lawyers and barred from communicating with their family.

With the legal leeway, counterterrorism authorities will have no barriers in building a case to prosecute those who return from fighting with the IS in Syria and from participating in the Marawi siege in the Philippines.

The House’s special committee on the amendment of the law, Arsul Sani, said the legal leeway and the detention extension were among several pending issues that had finally been agreed to by the House and the government during a meeting last week.

“If an individual joins a paramilitary group carrying out terrorist attacks abroad, they can be charged as criminals when they return to Indonesia,” Arsul, a United Development Party (PPP) legislator, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

Prevailing law does not stipulate criminal charges against Indonesian citizens who travel abroad to join terror movements.

As a result, the government can only act against hundreds of alleged IS supporters, who were deported to the country after attempting to join the terrorist group in Syria, by housing them in a shelter to take part in deradicalization programs.

The National Police recorded that at least 600 Indonesian citizens departed for Syria last year. From 2014 to January 2017, the Turkish government deported 225 Indonesians who attempted to join the IS.

Up to February this year, the government has housed 75 people deported from Turkey, Singapore and Japan for allegedly trying to join the IS in Syria at the Bambu Apus rehabilitation center in East Jakarta.

The police have also reported that 38 Indonesian citizens were believed to have been involved in clashes in Marawi between security forces and insurgents linked to the IS.

Four were killed and 12 others have been deported by the Philippine government. Meanwhile, 22 are reportedly still in Marawi.

Lawmakers also demand further stipulation regulating attempts to revoke the passport and citizenship of an individual suspected of joining terrorist groups.

“If the suspected individuals return to Indonesia and we revoke their citizenship, where will they go? They don’t even have passports,” the committee deputy chairman, Supiadin Aries Saputra of the NasDem Party, said.

The House and the government have also settled differences on the extension of the detention period for terrorism suspects.

From the time of arrest until trial, the bill permits a detention period of up to 760 days, 50 days longer than under the Criminal Code, which stipulates a maximum 710 days detention during prosecution, committee chairman Muhammad Syafii of the Gerindra Party said.

The House, Syafii said, had also agreed to grant the police the authority to extend a detention period during preliminary investigation by up to 21 days of the 760-day period. The 21 days is shorter than the government’s proposal of 30 days, but is longer than the seven days in the prevailing law.

However, after 14 days of detention, the police are required to obtain approval from the Attorney General’s Office to extend it for another seven days.

“After more than two months of negotiations, the House was finally able to reduce the government’s proposals [in relation to the detention period] for the sake of human rights,” Syafii said.

Acknowledging that the extension was susceptible to human rights abuses, Syafii said the committee would include additional articles to ensure rehabilitation and compensation for victims of wrongful arrests.

The committee will include articles that ban the use of physical abuse, torture and other actions in the revision, and stipulate a penalty of two years’ imprisonment for security personnel found guilty of such misconduct.

“The government has agreed to add those articles. It is part of a compromise to accommodate the government’s proposal to extend the detention period,” he said.

The bill is slated to be passed into law this year.