JAKARTA: An Indonesian court declared on Tuesday all groups related to Daesh as defunct and disbanded Jamaah Anshor Daulah (JAD), a local militant group responsible for terror attacks in Indonesia, including the first attack in the country involving women and children in Surabaya in May.
Aris Buwono Langgeng, the presiding judge, told a court hearing at the South Jakarta District Court that JAD as a “corporation” was proven guilty, with convincing evidence that it has carried out terror attacks and incited widespread terror.
“(The court) hereby declares the Jamaah Anshor Daulah or JAD corporation or organization, and other organizations affiliated to Daesh as outlawed corporations,” Langgeng said.
The verdict also included a 5 million rupiah fine for the group.
The verdict makes JAD the second terror-linked group to be disbanded in Indonesia after Jemaah Islamiyah in 2008. The group was affiliated with Al-Qaeda and behind the deadly Bali bombings in 2002.
Zainal Anshori, a JAD leader of its East Java chapter who represented the group, shouted “God is Great” on hearing the verdict and before consulting his lawyer Asludin Hatjani about whether or not to appeal.
“We have consulted our client and he told me to just let it be, there is no use to appeal. It is not about whether he agrees with the verdict or not. He just didn’t specify the reason. So, as JAD’s lawyer, I would not appeal,” Hatjani told journalists after the hearing.
Adhe Bakti, a terrorism analyst, told Arab News that the verdict would pave the way for law enforcement officials to detain people alleged to support groups with links to Daesh.
It also empowers the police to step up a crackdown on alleged militants and to increase security when Indonesia hosts two international events — the Asian Games in August and the IMF-World Bank annual meetings in October.
“The judge took into account previous court rulings on defendants with links to JAD. The panel of judges came to the conclusion that JAD is indeed a corporation with members who have carried out terror attacks, therefore it can be classified as a terrorist group even though it is a loose organization,” Bakti said.
The same court sentenced JAD leader Aman Abdurrahman to death in June for urging followers to carry out a series of terror attacks, including the 2016 raid in central Jakarta that left eight people, including four extremists, dead.
However, during his trial, Abdurrahman denied supporting the suicide bombings carried out by two families on three churches and a police headquarters in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-biggest city, and said that involving women and children in such attacks was cruel.
The US State Department named JAD as a global terrorist group in January 2017 and described it as “a terrorist group based in Indonesia,” established in 2015 and composed of almost two dozen Indonesian extremist groups that have pledged allegiance to Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.
Meanwhile, the Indonesia government is verifying Filipino media reports that an Indonesian national was allegedly involved in a suicide car bomb in Basilan that killed 10 on Tuesday.
Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, the Foreign Ministry’s director for protection of Indonesians abroad, said that the ministry has instructed the consulate general in Davao to obtain official information on the alleged Indonesian national’s involvement in the attack.
“So far local authorities still have not indicated that there is an Indonesian national implicated, whether as a victim or as an alleged suspect,” Iqbal said.
