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Govt to build special rehab center for ex-terrorists
Saudi art therapist Awad al-Yami looks at artwork painted by Islamic militants at the Mohammed bin Nayef Center for Advice, Counseling and Care in Riyadh
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Saudi art therapist Awad al-Yami looks at artwork painted by Islamic militants at the Mohammed bin Nayef Center for Advice, Counseling and Care in Riyadh. (AP) (AP)
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span class="inline inline-center">Saudi art therapist Awad al-Yami looks at artwork painted by Islamic militants at the Mohammed bin Nayef Center for Advice, Counseling and Care in Riyadh. (AP)
The government is planning to build a special deradicalization center for former terrorists in Sentul in Bogor, West Java, with the involvement of experts from a range of fields.
Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly said the government would employ religious leaders and psychologists in the facility, in an attempt to resolve normal prisons' inability to deradicalize the radical because of a lack of funds and resources.
"This is not prison for terrorists [...] These are special blocks with maximum security," Yasonna said as quoted by kompas.com on Wednesday in Jakarta.
The deradicalization program would be separate from the penitentiary management, Yasonna continued, in a bid to anticipate and prevent terrorist convicts from disseminating their radical views among other detainees.
Previously, he explained, prison officers were assigned the task of deradicalizing terror convicts; however, this program had backfired, with at least three officers instead themselves converted to radicalism by the convicts.
National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) deradicalization director Irfan Idris said that if convicted terrorists were detained in normal prisons, they could disseminate radical teachings among other prisoners.
"[Thus] the center is not a special prison, but a place for intensive counseling for ex-terrorists," Irfan told thejakartapost.com, adding that if the government established a special prison for the detention of terror convicts, the result would be a concentration and strengthening of radicalism.
The deradicalization center is aimed at ensuring former terrorists do not return to radicalism, he added. (ags)(+)
