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BENARNEWS- Indonesia's second largest party may convene an "extraordinary meeting" to replace its chairman, Parliamentary Speaker Setya Novanto, after an anti-graft agency ordered his arrest and detention over his suspected role in a corruption scandal, a senior party official said Monday.
The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) detained Novanto, 62, on Sunday night in connection with the alleged theft of U.S. $170 million in state funds from an electronic national identity card scheme.
"In the interest of the party ... Golkar should hold an extraordinary national meeting to select a new party chairman," the chairman of the Golkar party's advisory board, Agung Laksono, told the Jakarta Globe.
Golkar, a partner in the ruling coalition, so far has not removed Novanto as party chairman, but Agung said he had urged members to support its secretary-general, Idrus Marham, who could become the acting chairman before Novanto's permanent replacement is found.
Novanto, who vanished for 24 hours as anti-corruption investigators issued a warrant for his arrest, turned up in a hospital emergency room on Thursday, claiming his car had hit a utility pole in South Jakarta.
He was arrested after KPK officials announced that his medical condition did not require hospitalization.
The Indonesian public, through social media, questioned whether the accident was staged to derail the graft investigation. The KPK had earlier failed to locate Novanto when authorities raided his home last Wednesday.
"Unexpectedly I have been in an accident," Novanto told reporters at KPK offices on Sunday night, claiming he had injured a leg, an arm and his head.
"Still suffering from vertigo after the accident. I thought I would be given time for recovery, but I obey the law," he said.
Novanto was among senior officials who allegedly received kickbacks from funds for a government project to issue national identification cards.
In July, the KPK announced that Novanto was suspected, along with other officials and several companies, of embezzling more than one-third of the 5.9 trillion rupiah (U.S. $443 million) allocated for the I.D. program known as e-KTP, between 2011 and 2012.
Novanto was taken to the KPK detention center following his arrest.
After he was first named as a suspect in the e-KTP case four months ago, he did not appear before the agency for questioning, saying then that he was ill and needed to undergo heart surgery.
The South Jakarta District Court annulled KPK's action against him following a pretrial hearing in September. On Nov. 10, KPK again named him a suspect.
Novanto's lawyer said he had filed a pretrial motion against the allegations.
"The questions asked were properly answered," his attorney, Febri, told reporters.
On Monday, KPK investigators also questioned Deisti Astriani, Novanto's wife. She did not respond to questions from reporters after the KPK interview that lasted eight hours.
'Follow the legal process,' president says
Novanto told reporters before his arrest that he had sent letters to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and other officials seeking legal protection from detention, considering his position as House speaker.
"I have told Mr. Setya Novanto to follow the legal process," Jokowi told Kompas.com, in his response to Novanto's request. Jokowi had promised to rid Indonesia of corruption when he campaigned for the presidency in 2014.
Many Indonesians welcomed Novanto's arrest.
"I really appreciate the KPK's courage to arrest Setnov," Risna, a Central Jakarta resident, told BenarNews, using a nickname for Novanto. "This proves that nobody can interfere with the KPK."
KPK had earlier named three other suspects in addition to two former Ministry of Home Affairs officials who have been sentenced to seven and five years in prison.
Novanto was chairman of the Golkar faction of the House when the e-I.D. card project was launched in 2011-2012. He allegedly acted as a lobbyist for other parliament members to approve the e-KTP project.
The case allegedly involved dozens of politicians, former officials and members of parliament.
More calls for resignation
In December 2015, Novanto resigned as house speaker after the head of Freeport McMoran in Indonesia, Maroef Sjamsoeddin, told a parliamentary ethics panel that he had secretly recorded a meeting during which the speaker had allegedly asked for a 20 percent-stake in the mining company. Novanto was reappointed last year.
His detention on Sunday emboldened ordinary citizens and critics to join calls for his resignation as speaker.
"The image of the House has been destroyed," said Fazry, a resident of Bekas, West Java, referring to the House of Representatives by its Indonesian acronym. "Coupled with its chairman, the image of the DPR is getting worse."
Donal Fariz, an activist with Indonesian Corruption Watch, agreed that Novanto needed to resign.
"This is to prevent abuse of power as a head of a state institution in fighting the legal process, so that there is no conflict of interest," Fariz said in a statement.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo confirmed on Monday that he had nominated his air force chief to succeed the head of the country's armed forces (TNI), an army general who has stirred controversy recently by making political comments.
Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto will replace Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo, who is due to retire in March 2018, as the supreme commander of the 475,000 personnel who serve in the various branches of Indonesia's military, Jokowi said in a press statement.
"I believe he has strong capability and leadership and can bring the TNI in a more professional direction according to its identity, namely as the people's army, combatants' army, the national army, and the professional army," the president said.
Tjahjanto's name has been submitted to the House of Representatives (DPR), which needs to approve it, officials said.
Tjahjanto has close ties to Jokowi. Prior to his appointment as air force chief, Tjahjanto served as Jokowi's military secretary for a year in 2015. He was also the defense ministry's inspector-general. On top of that, he commanded an air base in Solo, Central Java, when Jokowi served as the city's mayor from 2005 to 2012.
"So the selection of the air chief to become the TNI's commander is more on the preference of President Jokowi," Andrianto, a Jakarta-based political analyst, told BenarNews.
The process to confirm Tjahjanto is scheduled to be completed before the parliamentary recess this month, said Taufik Kurniawan, the House vice chairman.
"Before the Dec. 13 recess, we could see the results of the fit-and-proper tests," Kurniawan told reporters in Jakarta, referring to the parliamentary panel that would handle the confirmation proceedings.
Effendi Simbolon, a member of Commission I, the House panel that oversees defense, said his team would assess Tjahjanto's integrity in maintaining the military's professionalism, as well as his loyalty to the country.
"I expect it will be smooth and he will become the commander of the TNI," he said.
No signs of political ambition
Pangi Syarwi Chaniago, executive director of Jakarta-based Voxpol Center Research and Consulting, said Jokowi could have chosen Tjahjanto because the 54-year-old military officer had not publicly shown signs of any political ambition.
He said Jokowi might have preferred a military chief that he could control, not someone coveting political power.
In October, the president urged the military to keep away from politics and remain loyal to the government following Nurmantyo's false claims a month earlier, in which he warned that a non-military institution planned to import 5,000 firearms illegally.
Nurmantyo has not publicly commented on that controversy after the chief security minister corrected his claim about the guns.
The fiery military chief has been accused of taking advantage of his position to gain political power in preparation for a possible presidential run in 2019.
"It is clear that the president must have been traumatized, and does not want to repeat having a military commander who plays with opinions, sentiments and political issues that are electorally profitable," Chaniago said.
"General Gatot is indeed a potential presidential candidate," he added, using Nurmantyo's first name.
Nurmantyo has improved his political stature but has courted controversy by issuing statements that appeal to both nationalists and Islamic voters in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
In September this year, the four-star general attended an event hosted by an Islamic political party, where he warned that communists had become a renewed threat for Indonesia.
He also ordered soldiers to watch a Suharto-era propaganda film depicting the killings of six army generals during an alleged military coup in September 1965.
During the 2014 presidential election, Widodo was subjected to a smear campaign online that claimed he was a descendant of communists and had Chinese ancestry. The campaign coincided with a drop in his high approval ratings at the time.
In October, Nurmantyo again became the subject of controversy when he was barred from boarding a flight to the United States due to "security protocols," but he decided to cancel the trip after the issue was quickly resolved.
That incident, during which Gatot was scheduled to attend a conference in Washington D.C. at the invitation of Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, led to an apology from American Defense Secretary James Mattis.
Potential vice-presidential bet?
According to Burhanuddin Muhtadi, executive director executive at the Jakarta think-tank Indonesian Political Indicator, Nurmantyo could potentially become Jokowi's vice-presidential running mate in the 2019 presidential election.
"Gatot has the potential to be Jokowi's secret weapon," he said.
A new survey conducted by a Jakarta-based research firm, Indo Barometer, put Nurmantyo as one of four strongest vice-presidential bets.
Nurmantyo's electability reached 6.9 percent, in the same rank with Agus Harimurti Yudhono, the son of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia's previous president; and Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, the former Jakarta governor who is now in jail after his blasphemy conviction. Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan garnered 10.5 percent electability, according to the survey.
Asked to react to Tjahjanto's nomination, Nurmantyo expressed hope that his successor would conquer the challenges faced by military commanders.
"Do not ask me, but ask the president because it would be the president who will use the commander who will replace me based on the challenges of the task ahead," Nurmantyo told Indonesian state news agency Antara.


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BENARNEWS- The leaders of Muslim-majority Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh on Thursday condemned U.S. President Donald Trump's official recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and his announcement that the United States will move its embassy to the holy city from Tel Aviv.
The major shift in U.S. policy on the thorny issue of Jerusalem, which the American president announced Wednesday, shocked the Muslim world, which has rallied around the cause of Palestinian statehood. The move would destabilize peace efforts as well foment potential violence and terrorism, leaders and observers in Asia said.
"Indonesia strongly condemns the one-sided claim made by the U.S. in recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital city. We urge the U.S. to reconsider the decision," Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said Thursday.
"Such unilateral recognition has violated United Nations' Security Council and General Assembly's resolutions where the United States is a member. This can shake the stability of world security," added the leader of the world's largest Muslim-majority country.
Move could fan radicalism: observers
In announcing the decision at the White House, Trump said the United States would support a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinian state regarding the holy land for three major religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
"Above all, our greatest hope is for peace, the universal yearning in every human soul. With today's action, I reaffirm my administration's longstanding commitment to a future of peace and security for the region," Trump said.
Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital while Palestinians see East Jerusalem as their future state capital. Muslims worldwide see the Al-Aqsa mosque, which sits on Judaism's holiest site, the Temple Mount, as Islam's third-holiest site.
Fifty years ago in June 1967, Israel seized East Jerusalem, the West Bank and other territories as it defeated the militaries of three neighboring Arab nations – Jordan, Egypt and Syria – in the Six-Day War.
In 1995, the U.S. congress adopted the Jerusalem Embassy Relocation Act, calling for the embassy to move there from Tel Aviv by 1999. Prior to Wednesday's announcement, presidents including Trump had issued waivers every six months to keep the embassy in place, citing national security interests.
"It will make the world situation worse and lead to an endless conflict," said Helmy Faishal Zaini, general secretary of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia's Muslim largest organization, reacting to Trump's announcement.
"The decision will encourage radicalization among Muslims in reaction to the U.S.-created radicalism and global injustice," said another prominent Indonesian Muslim leader, Din Syamsuddin, chairman of the Indonesia-Palestine Friendship Initiative (PPIP)
Anti-American protests over the announcement were expected following Friday prayers in Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur, and the U.S. embassy in the Malaysian capital warned its citizens to be cautious.
Act of 'aggression' against Islam: Najib
In Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak spoke out against Trump's announcement during a speech to the ruling United Malays National Party's annual assembly.
"This week, we are shocked to hear the plan of the United States of America to recognize one of the three Holy Lands for the Muslim Ummah [community]... as the capital of Israel, I'm confident, we as Muslims cannot accept this," Najib said.
"We must voice our stand clearly so that the world listens to the voice of the Muslims in Malaysia, that we reject forever and in the harshest terms the suggestion to make Baitul Maqdis [Al-Aqsa mosque] as the capital of Israel."
Najib's government also issued a statement about the U.S. announcement.
"It would have grave repercussions not only towards the security and stability of the region, but would inflame sentiments, making efforts to combat terrorism all the more difficult," the statement said. It added that Malaysia recognizes the issue of Jerusalem at the core of the Palestinian cause.
"Any attempts to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, establishing or transferring any diplomatic mission to the city, are considered aggression not only against the Arab and Islamic Ummah, but are also infringements on the rights of Muslims and Christians alike," the statement said.
In Bangladesh, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina joined a chorus from the Muslim world condemning and questioning the wisdom of the American president's move.
"I think the Islamic world would not accept the suo moto [unilateral] announcement made by the U.S. president," Hasina said. "I would urge all Muslim countries and the Islamic Ummah to get united so that the Palestinians can guarantee their just rights."
'An opportunity for a lasting peace'
Trump's decision, however, has the official support of his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, who has been at odds with the president over key areas of American foreign policy, according to U.S. media reports.
"President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital aligns U.S. presence with the reality that Jerusalem is home to Israel's legislature, Supreme Court, President's office, and Prime Minister's office," Tillerson said in a statement.
"We have consulted with many friends, partners, and allies in advance of the president making his decision. We firmly believe there is an opportunity for a lasting peace."


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian anti-terror squad Densus 88 arrested 20 men and a teenager with possible links to extremist group Islamic State (IS) during raids over the weekend and into Monday, and ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays, police officials said.
The 21 were taken into custody in operations conducted in East Java, West Kalimantan, South Sumatra and Riau provinces, according to police.
"We are conducting what we call pre-emptive strikes," National Police Chief Tito Karnavian told reporters in Jakarta.
"Groups we think have the potential to conduct terror acts – we arrested most of them," Tito said, adding that police had not received reports of any terror plots near the holidays.
Of those arrested, a dozen people were taken into custody on Sunday and Monday in South Sumatra.
"The 12 men who have been arrested may not be suspects, as they are all still under investigation. We do not know if they provided the firearms, or protected [the terrorists], or they themselves were directly involved," Inspector General Zulkarnain Adinegara, the provincial police chief, told reporters Monday.
Five of the 12 allegedly were part of the Jamaah Anshar Khilafah (JAK) militant group who escaped a police raid in the Sumatra province of Jambi months ago, authorities said.
The JAK members allegedly were involved in smuggling weapons used in a terrorist attack in central Jakarta in January 2016 that left eight people dead, including four perpetrators. The assault was the first successful one claimed by IS in the world's largest Muslim-majority country.
The five men were also allegedly linked to a suicide bombing at police headquarters in the Central Java city of Solo on July 5, 2016.
On Monday, Densus 88 also arrested four men allegedly linked with the extremist group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) in Riau, another province on Sumatra island. Police believe that they, along with other JAD members who were arrested in October, planned to attack police stations.
East Java raid
The raids began on Saturday with the arrests of three men in separate Densus 88 operations in Malang, Sidoarjo and Surabaya, cities in East Java. The three were identified as Kiki Rizky, Paripung Dhani and Muh Muhidin.
All three had traveled to Syria, police said.
Kiki was riding a motorbike with his child at the time of his arrest, according to police.
"My child is traumatized," Kiki's wife, Amiroh, told BenarNews before ending the interview when asked about her husband's alleged involvement in a terror network.
His brother-in-law, M. Sharif, said he did not know about Kiki's daily activities except that he worked as a driver. Kiki lives with his parents, while Amiroh lives mostly with her family.
"Sometimes Kiki came here once a week," Sharif said.
Kiki and the other two arrested men are suspected members of a group led by Abu Jandal, an Indonesian-born IS fighter who was killed during an assault in Mosul, Iraq, in November 2016.
East Java Police spokesman Frans Barung Mangera said Kiki left for Syria in late 2013 and met with Abu Jandal.
"He went to Syria without the knowledge of his wife and parents. He told them that he would work in Saudi Arabia," said Barung, adding that all the three men returned from Syria to two years ago.
Paripung (also known as Ipung) allegedly is a member of JAT who was involved in a bomb plot targeting a police station in Surabaya in 2014, authorities said.
On Saturday, Densus 88 also arrested a man identified as KT, 45, in West Kalimantan. KT often posted calls for jihad on social media, along with his 15-year-old son, police said.
In February, KT was involved in an attack in the West Java city of Bandung, where a pressure-cooker bomb exploded in a park before a gun-battle erupted nearby, leaving one militant dead, said Tito Karnavian, the national police chief.
"We arrested him in West Kalimantan, where he allegedly was involved in a Malaysian network, so we have been sharing information with Malaysia," he said.
Police investigations
The people in custody face a seven-day investigation, Inspector General Setyo Wasisto, the spokesman for national police, said.
"After that, their status will be determined either as suspects or they will be freed," he said.
The counter-terror raids were an attempt to contain possible terrorist attacks before the end of the year, according to Ridlwan Habib, a terrorism analyst at the University of Indonesia.
"Their names are in the Polda [provincial police] database in Indonesia, so some of the Poldas have simultaneously conducted operations against them," he told BenarNews.
"When they are interrogated, police will dig up information about whether the networks will try to launch assaults in the end of the year, especially during the Christmas and New Year holidays."
Last year, Densus 88 officers killed two suspected militants during a Christmas Day raid.
Ridlwan said the possibility of terror attacks increased this month following U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city.
"So there is this context for a person or a group seeking to carry out an attack. They can attack the interests of the United States in Indonesia, either its embassies, hotels, American symbols or individuals," he said.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian prosecutors charged former parliamentary speaker Setya Novanto at the start of his corruption trial on Wednesday, accusing him of receiving at least U.S. $7.3 million in kickbacks in one of the country's biggest graft scandals.
But his indictment, which kicked off the trial at the Central Jakarta district court, was delayed for seven hours, after the defendant's lawyers said that their client was suffering from a bad bout of diarrhea.
"The court has agreed that the trial can continue with [an] indictment," said Judge Yanto, who goes by only one name. "The defendant only needs to carefully listen to the prosecutors reading the indictment."
Setya, one of Indonesia's most influential politicians and the ex-speaker of the House of Representatives (DPR), faces a maximum of 20 years in prison, if convicted of violating the country's Anti-Corruption Law. His resignation as DPR speaker was the second time in two years that he stepped down because of corruption allegations leveled against him.
The latest graft charges stemmed from a 2009 government project on biometric electronic identity cards for 250 million Indonesians.
Setya's lawyers had argued earlier that he was too ill to face the charges, prompting sneers and laughter from courtroom spectators. But prosecutors said that a team of doctors had earlier examined him and declared he was healthy enough.
"I'd had diarrhea for five days," the politician, who appeared under the weather as he sat in the courtroom, told the judge.
Setya was seen coughing at the start of the trial. Initially, he also appeared to be dodging questions from judges by responding to questions with coughs.
Guards also assisted him when he walked in and out of the room.
"It is clearly visible that my client does not act like a healthy person during the trial," Setya's lawyer, Maqdir Ismail, said. "We never intended to delay the trial, but this is the fact."
Prosecutors were apparently irritated by Setya's actions, accusing him of lying to the court.
"We are confident that he is healthy enough and able to attend the trial," prosecutor Irene Putri told the court.
"He once complained about his health that he had to go to the toilet multiple times. But a prison guard said he only went to the toilet two times last night and slept the whole night until this morning," she said.
Disputes over Setya's health forced the court to adjourn the trial twice. The proceedings resumed after he was found fit to stand trial.
Setya, who has faced allegations of corruption in the past but has never been convicted, was accused of taking part in a conspiracy of dozens of officials who used the project called e-KTP to embezzle more than $170 million of state funds. He denied the allegations that became public this year.

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Setya Novanto's wife, Deisti Astriani Tagor, (center) attends his trial at the Jakarta Corruption Court, Dec. 13, 2017. [Arie Firdaus/BenarNews]

 
Kickbacks and a glittering gift
The millions of dollars in kickbacks allegedly given to Setya were earmarked for the $443-million project between 2011 and 2012, prosecutors said.
Setya also received a Richard Mille watch worth about $135,000 as a bribe to ensure he would shepherd the project for parliamentary approval, prosecutors said.
The controversy captivated Indonesia after a series of dramatic events led to Setya's arrest.
Setya initially avoided questioning by the country's anti-corruption agency for months, but then he turned up in a hospital emergency room in late November, claiming he had been involved in a car accident in South Jakarta.
Officers from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) raided his palatial home, then arrested him at the hospital in a scene widely covered on social media.
After his arrest, the Golkar party, a partner in Indonesia's governing coalition, removed him from his duties as chairman. He resigned his post as speaker on Monday, without explaining why, according to party officials.
In December 2015, Setya was forced to resign as House speaker after the head of Freeport McMoran in Indonesia, Maroef Sjamsoeddin, told a parliamentary ethics panel that he had secretly recorded a meeting during which the speaker had allegedly asked for a 20 percent-stake in the mining company.
Setya denied the allegation. Indonesia's attorney-general later dropped an investigation and the Constitutional Court ruled in his favor. He was reappointed as House speaker last year.


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BENARNEWS- By a five to four vote, Indonesia's Constitutional Court (MK) on Thursday rejected a petition to outlaw extramarital and gay sex, in what is being hailed as a triumph by the LGBT minority in the country with the world's largest Muslim population.
The MK ruled against the 2016 petition by the Family Love Alliance (AILA) to alter some articles in the criminal code. The alliance of conservative academics and activists said members sought to prevent Indonesia from being swamped by immoral behavior.
AILA urged the court to expand the existing law by forbidding married people from having sex with anyone but their spouses and barring all sex between unmarried people.
The group also asked the court to expand the current law that makes it illegal to have sex with a minor to also forbid gay sex.
"Rejecting the whole petition of the petitioners," MK Chief Justice Arief Hidayat, who voted with the minority, announced on Thursday.
Judge Saldi Isra, who voted with the majority, said the court does not have the authority to amend the law by expanding its definition. The judiciary's main function is to rule on the constitutionality of a law.
He said granting AILA's petition would give the government power to interfere in what should be a domestic matter.
"Building an argument of organizing social order by threatening members of society with punishment, moreover with the criminal law, is to say that social order is only possible by implementing a threat," Saldi said, calling that argument baseless.
Judge Wahiduddin Adams said in his dissenting opinion that alteration of the law is needed to be in harmony with the country's values.
"All misconduct done by an individual, especially adultery, is always considered to have a negative impact communally because the individual is not an alienated person who is free from all structural ties of his or her society," Adams said.
Activists raise concern over intolerance
Rights activists welcomed the ruling, but expressed surprise as they fear rising intolerance in Indonesia. The decision comes just a few months after police conducted raids against gay groups.
In May, police took 141 men into custody after raiding what they described as a gay striptease performance at a fitness club in North Jakarta.
That same month, two men who were found in bed together were publicly caned in Aceh province after being arrested in March. Except in the province of Aceh, where Sharia law is in force, gay sex is not illegal in Indonesia.
Naila Rizki, an activist with the National Commission of Women, said she was pleased by the decision, but regretted the court's suggestion that petitioners channel their request to the legislature (DPR).
"Especially given the argument rejecting the petition is that the state should not intervene too much into the privacy of its citizens," Naila said.
Dede Oetomo, an LGBT activist, said AILA's petition "will trigger the action of intolerance."

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AILA member Euis Sunarti speaks with reporters after the Constitutional Court ruled against her group's petition, Dec. 14, 2017. [Arie Firdaus/BenarNews]

 
 
AILA 'still fighting'
Meanwhile, AILA member Euis Sunarti, a professor at Bogor Agricultural University, said her group was not pleased.
"Of course I am sad, because we had big expectations. But today's decision was five judges against four," Euis told reporters after the ruling.
"We respect all the MK judges, especially those four who have dissenting opinions, their words make me cry."
Euis said she and her group will take their petition to lawmakers as the legislature discusses revising the country's criminal code.
"We are still fighting," Euis said.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia will deploy about 250,000 police officers during the end-of-year holidays, the nation's police chief said Thursday, as he appealed for tolerance after a hardline Islamic group threatened to conduct "sweeping operations" to prevent businesses from forcing Muslims to wear Santa Claus hats.
National Police Chief Tito Karnavian announced the increased police presence – a significant jump from last year's deployment of 155,000 officers for Christmas and New Year – at a ceremony launching Operation Lilin at the National Monument Square in Jakarta.
During the event attended by thousands of police, military and public agency security officers, Tito downplayed concerns about potential militant attacks.
"We have not detected any threats of attacks by terrorist groups," Tito said. "However, we must remain vigilant, there could be lone wolves or individuals who could launch an attack."
"Lone wolves are individuals who have become radicalized over content on the internet. They learn how to make bombs from the internet and their whereabouts are undetected. We can only arrest them after an attack," he said.
Earlier this month, the national anti-terror squad Densus 88 arrested 20 suspected terrorists in four provinces.
"We have launched a pre-emptive strike," Tito said at the time. "We have arrested most of the groups that we consider having the potential to launch terror attacks." He did not elaborate.
Tito said police would increase security at churches and entertainment spots in the Muslim-majority nation to curtail "sweeping operations."
Earlier this week, the hardline Islamic Defenders Front threatened to raid business to check for Muslims being forced to wear Santa hats or other Christmas-related outfits, Reuters news service reported.
"There can be no sweeping operations," Tito said. "Members of the public should respect other religions that are carrying out celebrations."
"We reflect on our experience in 2000," Tito said, referring to Christmas Eve bomb attacks outside churches across Indonesia that killed 18 people. "We don't want that to happen again."
Muslim youth support
Police will have the support of millions of Muslims who have pledged to stand guard outside churches to ensure the safety of Indonesia's small Christian minority during holiday services.
Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, chairman of Gerakan Pemuda Ansor, the youth wing of Indonesia's largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), welcomed the increased police presence and said his members would participate in maintaining security, if asked.
"We are ready if the church or the police ask us to, just like in previous years. Last year we deployed almost 2.5 million members across the country," he told BenarNews.
Albertus Petty, chairman of the Association of Churches in Indonesia (PGI), welcomed the tighter security.
"We greatly appreciate the national police chief and NU's commitment. We are thankful of the steps that the police are taking to prevent an anarchic situation such as 'sweeping' or other terror attacks from happening," he said.
Albertus called on churches to deliver uplifting messages.
"We asked our congregations to celebrate Christmas with peace with anyone regardless of their religious or ethnic backgrounds to prevent hatred and disintegration," he said.
Analyst's warning
Police must be alert to a potential attack by groups known as sleeper cells, according to Al Chaidar, a terrorism researcher at Malikussaleh University in Lhokseumawe, Aceh province.
"The rallies against U.S. President Donald Trump could increase threats and groups could use that as justification to launch their actions," he said, referring to Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in a move that has been widely condemned by Muslim nations.


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BENARNEWS- For the first time in Indonesia, the families of a child killed and others injured in a terrorist attack at a local church last year received government compensation – 237 million rupiah (U.S. $17,475) – based on a prosecutor's unprecedented request.
The money was split among seven victims of the Molotov cocktail attack that killed Intan Olivia Banjarnahor, 2, and injured three other children at the Oikumene Church in Samarinda, East Kalimantan province, on Nov. 13, 2016.
The amount awarded by the court, after it ruled in the case in September, was less than the 1.47 billion rupiah ($108,410) sought by prosecutors and the victims' families. Still, the recipients said they appreciated the funds handed over Thursday by the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK), which represents the government.
"This helps us. What is most important is knowing the government is actually concerned about us," Marsya Tiur, a parent of an injured child, told Antara, Indonesia's state-run news agency.
On the day of the attack, neighbors caught the man suspected of throwing the grenade. He was out on parole following his conviction on attempted bombing charges.
The attacker was identified as Jo bin Muhammad Aceng Kurnia (alias Juhanda), who tried to escape by jumping into the nearby Mahakam River. On Sept. 25, the East Jakarta District Court sentenced Juhanda to life in prison and ordered that the victims be compensated.
The order was based on the country's 2003 terrorism law and the 2014 law on victims and witness protections. These laws specify that the government compensate victims of terrorism and human rights abuses.
The prosecutor's request for government compensation to be included in Juhanda's conviction was the first of its kind in Indonesia, which has been hit by terrorist attacks since October 2002 when 202 people died in bombings in Bali.
In February, the attorney general's office advised prosecutors to include compensation requests for victims of terrorism and major human rights abuses.
"This is a good precedent," Taufik Andrie, director of the Institute for International Peacebuilding in Jakarta, told BenarNews on Friday. "But it is important to also cover past victims."
Adhe Bhakti, a terrorism analyst with the Center for the Study of Radicalism and Deradicalization, applauded the government's action, saying terrorist acts could have long-term effects.
"Sometimes they lose their future. The breadwinners might die or lose their job opportunities or chance to further their education," Adhe said.
Both want government to be quicker in responding to the needs of the victims, including awarding compensation without waiting for a court order.
"Directly give it to the victims as is their right," Adhe told BenarNews.
Still waiting
Other victims of Indonesian terrorist attacks are not so lucky.
Dwi Welasih, who was injured in the 2003 Marriott hotel bombing in Jakarta that killed 12 people and injured more than 150 others, has been fighting for years for government compensation, even after a court ruled in favor of the victims.
"Until now it has not been given, I don't know why," she told BenarNews.
Tony Soemarno, another Marriott bombing victim, said he would fight for compensation for himself and other victims.
"I don't know for how long, but I will continue to struggle," said the founder of the nonprofit Association of Indonesian Bomb Victims.
LPSK Vice Chairman Lili Pintauli Siregar explained that Marriott funds had not been distributed because the court ruling did not specify the number of victims nor the amount to be compensated by the government.
"The data of the victims is not detailed," Lili told BenarNews. "So it's a little difficult. To whom will the compensation be paid?"
Legislation in the works
Meanwhile, members of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR) are drafting a revised anti-terrorism bill to spell out guidelines for courts to grant compensation to terror victims. In addition to establishing court guidelines, the bill also contains a clause stating that anyone suspected of terrorism may be taken or held at a certain place for six months.
The long-awaited legislation has been delayed over disagreements.
Muhammad Syafi'I, who chairs the special parliamentary committee working on the bill, was asked about its status. Efforts began following the January 2016 terror attack in Jakarta that killed eight people, including four militants.
"It will be completed soon," he said.


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BENARNEWS- Conservative Islam emerged as a potent player in Indonesian politics in 2017, and could endure through presidential elections in 2019 in the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, analysts say.
Hardline groups, such as the Islamic Defenders' Front (FPI), chalked up a huge win when their demonstrations against Jakarta's then-governor resulted in his arrest, trial and conviction for blasphemy against Islam. Along the way, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama ("Ahok") lost his re-election bid.
Ahok was the highest-ranking public servant from the tiny ethnic-Chinese minority in Indonesian history, and a key ally of President Joko Widodo, who faces a re-election test in 2019 and won the presidency while serving as Jakarta's governor.
"There are groups that work with the radical community to overthrow President Joko Widodo," Boni Hargens, director of the Indonesian Electoral Institute, told a seminar in Jakarta earlier this month on the role of hardline groups in politics.
"These groups use tribal, religious, and race-based issues in politics. If this continues, it's guaranteed the 2019 election will be far from civilized," he said.
"Identity politics" is being used to advance political agendas, said Christine Susanna Tjhin, a researcher on pluralism and the politics of ethnic Chinese Indonesians at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Jakarta.
"Whether to gather support or to topple opponents, in general, identity politics became more visible this year," she told BenarNews.
'Sharia Republic'
Ahok's blasphemy conviction came just weeks after he lost the gubernatorial election in a runoff vote to Anies Baswedan, a U.S.-educated academic and former minister of education who shocked some Jakartans by meeting with leaders of hardline groups during the electoral campaign.
On Dec. 2, the new governor spoke at a "reunion" commemorating one of the mass demonstrations against Ahok a year earlier. Anies praised the peaceful nature of the protest that day and asked the crowds to support his work as governor.
The rally then heard a recording of FPI leader Rizieq Shihab, who has reportedly been in Saudi Arabia since May, when he was named a suspect under Indonesia's anti-pornography law in a case of alleged sexting.
"Finally, thanks to God, the blasphemer stepped down and slid down. Stepped down from his post and slid into jail," Rizieq said, according to a BBC Indonesia report.
He added that "indigenous people" would be "masters in their own country" in a "Sharia Republic of Indonesia."
Such a country would eschew the "usury economy," corruption, gambling, drugs, pornography, prostitution, LGBT people, and false accusations, he said.
Two-year sentence
As Jokowi's running mate, Ahok was elected deputy governor of Jakarta in October 2012, but ascended to the top spot when his boss became president two years later.
While many viewed him as tough on corruption and a driver of badly needed infrastructure improvements, he was deeply unpopular among riverbank dwellers displaced by anti-flooding programs – and among hardline Muslim groups.
Calls erupted for him to be arrested for blasphemy after he referred in public comments to a verse in the Quran that bars Muslims from having non-Muslim leaders, according to some interpretations.
Ahok, a Christian raised by an adoptive Muslim family, later apologized for the remark.
His two-year sentence was handed down after the lead prosecutor dropped the blasphemy charge during closing arguments, saying he could not prove that Ahok had intentionally insulted Islam.
In November, the man who uploaded an edited clip of Ahok's remarks was sentenced to 18 months in prison for violating a section of the country's cyber law in connection with the infamous Ahok video.
Nevertheless, the videographer, Buni Yani, appeared onstage at the Dec. 2 "reunion."
Bellwether provinces
The concept of a Sharia Republic concerns Bona Sigalingging, spokesman for GKI Yasmin, a Christian congregation that has been unable to worship in its West Java community due to opposition from Muslim neighbors.
"We are certainly worried about the jargon 'Unitary Republic of Indonesia with Sharia' because that's very different from the ideology of the Republic of Indonesia," he said, referring to Pancasila, which emphasizes unity and pluralism.
Indonesia's population is spread across more than 17,000 islands and includes more than 700 languages. The state officially recognizes six religions with Islam dominating as the faith of more than 87 percent of 260 million people.
Indonesia's founders "decided to create a republic and not a country based on religion; everyone should respect that. There shouldn't be someone who goes off by themselves to campaign for something outside of that," Bona said in a recent interview with BenarNews.
Jakarta became a "laboratory for the practice of the politics of hate" in 2017, according to Arif Susanto, an analyst at Exposit Strategic, a political and economic research firm.
He called 2017 "the Year of Hate Politics" and said Indonesia was entering a crucial moment in its political evolution.
"Not only because regional elections in 2018 are a warm-up for general elections in 2019, but also because the Reform Era that is now two decades old has not yet resulted in democratic consolidation," he said, referring to the period following the fall of dictator Suharto in 1998.
With society gripped by sectarian tensions, "Radical religious groups and political demagogues can 'fish in the turbulent water,'" he warned.
Nasir Djamil, a lawmaker from the Prosperous Justice Party, one of a handful of Islam-based parties in Indonesia, played down such concerns.
Most Indonesian Muslims are pragmatic, and embrace a form of Islam steeped in Javanese tradition, he said.
"Indonesian Muslims are not ideological people ... and they tend to be secular in their political choices, " he told BenarNews.
He said provincial elections in 2018 in densely populated West Java, Central Java and East Java provinces would serve as a bellwether for 2019 presidential and legislative elections. More than half of Indonesia's population lives on Java.
"If in these three places, the candidates with the Islamic political parties win, that will be a very strong signal for legislative and the 2019 presidential elections, that the Islam-based political parties will get significant votes and win," Nasir said.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia is doubling the size of its counterterrorism force ahead of major international events taking place in the country in 2018, National Police Chief Tito Karnavian said Friday.
The force will be headed by a two-star police general instead of one-star general, as well, Tito said in a yearender news conference in Jakarta.
"I have also asked for the force numbers to be doubled. We're adding about 600 personnel, so that the total will become 1,300," he said.
The former head of the elite police unit said the change was due to an assessment of the threat level next year when Indonesia hosts two major international events.
The two events are the Asian Games, which will take place in Jakarta, the Sumatran city of Palembang and various parts of West Java, with 1,500 people from 45 nations participating; and annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Bali, with 189 nations taking part.
The participation of North Korea and Myanmar in the Asian games in August and September, and of Israel and the United States in the IMF and WB meetings in October, make both of the events potential targets for radical groups and terrorists, Tito said.
Police casualties increase
Densus 88 is part of Indonesia's police force, which in 2017 apprehended 172 suspected terrorists, of whom 16 were shot dead during arrest attempts, officials said.
The number of suspects apprehended had increased from 163 in 2016 and 73 in 2015.
Of the suspects arrested in 2017, 76 are now on trial and 10 have been convicted.
"The number of arrests is more due to the proactive steps undertaken by the police, more specifically Densus 88, who are working harder to detect, monitor and take action against terror networks," Tito said.
He said the number of police killed in terror acts had increased during the last three years.
Four police were killed and 14 wounded on the job in 2017, Tito said. The previous year, the elite force suffered only one fatality, but 11 were wounded. One officer was killed and two injured in 2015.
"I have instructed that there be more undercover work, early prevention and action before incidents occur. For this we need stronger detection capacity," he said.
Race to train
The higher rank of the Densus 88 commander suggests an expansion of tasks and a larger budget for the force, according to counterterrorism expert Rakyan Adibrata.
"But keep in mind, training a 100-percent professional and prepared counter-terrorism officer is very time-consuming, whereas training a terrorist is much faster," he told BenarNews. "Densus will be racing against time."
"From the point of view of resources, ISIS is not like Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which aimed for a lot of casualties," Rakyan said, using another acronym for the so-called Islamic State group (IS), and comparing it with the al-Qaeda affiliate that killed 202 people in the 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali.
"For them it's enough to mount attacks with a simple kitchen knife," he said of IS.
Rakyan agreed with the police chief's analysis that the international events in Indonesia in 2018 could be targetted by terrorists.
"There are high expectations from perpetrators who want to use terrorism as a tool to convey political messages," he said.
According to statistics from Indonesia's foreign ministry, 227 Indonesians were arrested abroad in 2017, including in Turkey, Malaysia, Syria and South Korea.
The highest number of arrests took place in Turkey with 195 people, followed by Syria with 28.
The ministry added that 213 Indonesians, including 79 women and 78 children, were deported from Turkey between Jan. 1 and Oct. 20 this year. That number was three times greater than the 60 deportees from Turkey in 2016.
Foreign Ministry official Lalu Muhammad Iqbal said that most of the Indonesians were deported due to immigration violations, such as using an incorrect visa, overstaying a visa or being unable to produce a passport.
"Nevertheless, Turkish authorities indicated their suspicion that these individuals were in Turkey in order to cross into Syria and join ISIS, or other groups of that nature, such as Jabhat An-Nusra, in Syria," he said.
An earlier version of this story gave incorrect figures for the number of police killed and wounded in 2017.


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BENARNEWS- President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo appointed a top official of Indonesia's second largest political party and retired military leaders to his cabinet Wednesday, a shake-up that analysts see as a move to strengthen support ahead of coming elections, including presidential polls next year.
It was the third time Jokowi reshuffled his cabinet since he took office in October 2014, and the first time since July 2016, when the Golkar party left the opposition bloc and joined a ruling alliance led by his Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
On Wednesday, Jokowi appointed Golkar Secretary-General Idrus Marham, 55, to replace Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa, 52. Khofifah resigned so she could contest the June 2018 gubernatorial election in East Java province, which will be among regional polls taking place across Indonesia this year.
"This is a technical reshuffle, besides it is a necessity. However, the nomination of Idrus is quite surprising because the allocation fell to Golkar again, not to the Islamic-based National Awakening Party (PKB) even though there are many candidates in PKB and NU (Nahdlatul Ulama) who are capable of handling social issues," Tobias Basuki, a researcher with the Jakarta-based Center For Strategic and International Studies, told BenarNews.
NU, Indonesia's largest moderate Muslim organization, is the National Awakening Party's main supporter.
Jokowi also appointed retired Indonesian National Armed Force (TNI) chief Moeldoko, 60, to replace Teten Masduki, as his chief of staff (KSP).
In addition, Jowoki swore in Air Marshal Yuyu Sutisna, 55, as Air Force Chief of Staff. Yuyu replaces Chief Air Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto who was appointed in December as chief of the armed forces following the early retirement of Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo.
Agum Gumelar, 72, another retired military leader, was sworn in as a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee. He fills a position that has been open since Hasyim Muzadi, a former NU chairman, died in March 2017.
Teten, 54, a former activist with Indonesia Corruption Watch, a local NGO, and a key member of his campaign team in 2014, will have a new role.
"Pak Teten now will always be near me, as the special staff coordinator. Every day he has to be near me," Jokowi told journalists after the swearing-in of Idrus and Moeldoko.
Honeymoon with Golkar
Idrus is the second Golkar member to hold ministerial positions in Jokowi's administration, joining Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto, who was appointed in July 2016.
In the 2014 election, Golkar backed the losing presidential candidate, Prabowo Subianto. Two years later, the party gave its support to Jokowi, when it switched to the ruling coalition.
"This reshuffle is a honeymoon moment for Jokowi and Golkar and adds to Jokowi's strategy of increasing Golkar's bargaining position against the PDI-P," Syamsuddin Haris, a political observer from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), told BenarNews.
Another political analyst, Burhanudin Muhtadi, said the latest reshuffle of Jokowi's cabinet represented a victory for Golkar and the president.
"Since Golkar entered the cabinet, political stability has proven to be improving and maintained," he told BenarNews.
Unlike, PDI-P, which has not revealed who it will endorse in 2019, Golkar has expressed support for Jokowi.
Military support
Analysts said the addition of two retired generals to Jokowi's administration is a tactic to get military support for the 2019 presidential election.
The opposition coalition's main party, Gerakan Indonesia Raya (Gerindra), endorsed Prabowo Subianto, a former army general, for president.
Tobias Basuki expects that Moeldoko will be supporting Jokowi in 2019.
"The public has the perception that TNI still has an important role in maintaining stability, especially toward the 2018 regional elections and the 2019 presidential election," Tobias said.
Right activists, however, questioned Moeldoko's appointment.
"We are concerned about the agenda of dealing with past human rights violations that had been initiated by KSP. In the hands of Moeldoko, will the human rights violation problem be an important priority?" said Hendardi, chairman of the Setara Institute, a Jakarta-based human rights group.
Although Moeldoko is not directly linked to past rights violations, Hendardi said, his military background casts doubt on his independence in addressing the problem.
Meanwhile, Leonard Simanjuntak, executive director of Greenpeace Indonesia, expressed doubt that a military background was well suited for the job of the president's chief of staff. That person should have a background focusing on socio-economic development issues, he said.
"We are concerned that this reshuffle gives a false signal that a military person is more capable than a civilian person, and we believe that even if Teten had to be replaced, there are more than enough capable civilian candidates," Leonard told BenarNews.
"We are quite concerned that Mr. Moeldoko's military background is generally closer to the corporate community, while the role of KSP is crucial to channel the voice of the people who become victims to the president," he said.


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BENARNEWS- An Indonesian court convicted and sentenced an environmentalist Tuesday to 10 months in prison on a charge of spreading communism by carrying a hammer-and-sickle banner at a protest last year.
The prosecutor at the Banyuwangi District Court, in East Java province, had sought a seven-year sentence for defendant Hari Budiawan (alias Budi Pego), 37. Communism has been outlawed in the country since the mid-1960s, when a bloody purge against suspected members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) occurred.
A panel of judges ruled that Budi was guilty of a charge against "those who publicly commit crimes verbally, written, or through other media, spread or develop communism, Marxism, Leninism in any attempt."
"The prosecution proved convincingly that the defendant committed a criminal offense against the state," chief judge Putu Endru Sonata ruled. "Therefore he must serve 10 months in prison."
On Sept. 4, 2017, Budi was taken into custody and charged with carrying a banner that displayed communist symbols during an anti-mining protest in East Java in April 2017, causing public unrest. The court ruled on the lesser sentence because the defendant had never been involved in criminal acts.
The banner's hammer and sickle logo – the symbol of the liquidated PKI – was important evidence leading to the conviction, Putu told BenarNews.
Budi expressed disappointment.
"I am innocent and cannot accept the verdict," he said.
Lawyer Ahmad Rifai said the picture showing what looks like the PKI symbol on the banner could not be called a symbol of communism, adding that "the verdict has threatened democracy in Banyuwangi."
Budi has seven days to decide if he will appeal.
Herlambang P. Wiratraman, the chief of the Center for Human Rights Law Studies at Airlangga University in Surabaya, agreed with Rifai.
"The stigma of communism became the easiest tool to stop activists who resisted mining in Banyuwangi," he said.
'Judicial repression'
Amnesty International (AI) Indonesia also condemned the verdict, calling Budi a prisoner of conscience.
"This is a form of judicial repression against the constitutional rights of citizens to have opinions.
"A higher judicial authority" should immediately released Budi because he had "fought for the preservation of the environment and the rights of the people around Tumpang Pitu Mountain Protected Forest," AI Indonesia Director Usman Hamid said in a written statement.
"The judge should protect fundamental rights, namely the right of expression guaranteed by the constitution" by releasing Budi, Usman said.
In September, after Budi was arrested, fellow activist Agnes Dave questioned the authenticity of the banner.
"Local police and residents were also there. If the activists made such a banner displaying the hammer and sickle, they would have been aware. Police could have stopped the protest and arrested anyone joining in," she said at the time.

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Protesters gather in front of Banyuwangi District Court in East Java province, Indonesia, Jan. 23, 2018. (Yovinus Guntur/BenarNews)

 
 
While Budi was inside the courtroom learning his fate, hundreds of his supporters and anti-communist protesters gathered outside as police officers armed with a water cannon watched over them.
Members of the Anti-Communist Revival Movement (GAKK) said they supported the guilty verdict and sentencing.
"This is a proof that in Banyuwangi, there is indeed a new style of communist revival," said H. Abdillah Rafsanjani, an organizer of the GAKK protests.
Communism was declared illegal in Indonesia after PKI sympathizers killed 62 members of Ansor, the youth wing of the largest Indonesian Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, on Oct. 18, 1965. At least 500,000 Indonesians died during a nationwide killings that targeted suspected PKI members in 1965 and 1966.


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BENARNEWS - The United States has pledged to help Indonesia and five other Southeast Asian nations boost regional security by supporting a multilateral intelligence-sharing initiative dubbed "Our Eyes," Indonesian Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu said Tuesday.
Indonesia had proposed the "mini-Interpol" in October at the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting in the Philippines, shortly after that country defeated Islamic State-linked militants who occupied the southern Philippine city of Marawi for five months. Fleeing combatants could seek refuge in other countries, Ryamizard warned at the time.
"I've already formed Our Eyes, to see exactly what their activities are. America will help with sophisticated tools, so hopefully they will be quickly detected. Cooperation is how we eliminate terrorism," Ryamizard said at a short press conference with visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis at the Defense Ministry in Jakarta.
The initiative will be launched with participating countries – Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand – on Jan. 25 in Bali,  according to Maj. Gen. Hartind Asrin, the director general for defense strategy.
"This is a direct communication channel between defense ministers," Hartind told BenarNews.
'Maritime domain awareness'
Mattis' Asia visit followed his unveiling late last week of the U.S. national defense strategy, the first time the new U.S. administration had spelled out its security priorities.
The strategy places renewed emphasis on balancing the influence of other powers such as China, and calls for an expansion of Indo-Pacific alliances and partnerships.
Mattis said the Indonesian and U.S. militaries should keep working together to ensure freedom of navigation and respect for international law – a reference to China's expansionist moves in the South China Sea, through which a large portion of the world's maritime freight traffic passes.
"These are all matters of interest to all nations, and certainly Indonesia at the fulcrum of the Indo Pacific area is critical, and if we can help in any maritime domain awareness in the South China Sea and the North Natuna Sea, this is something that we look forward to doing," Mattis said.
Indonesia has beefed up security around its Natuna Islands archipelago, located at the south end of the South China Sea, and renamed those waters the North Natuna Sea, provoking protests from Beijing, which claims it has overlapping claims to those waters.
Mattis also offered U.S. support in realizing  President Joko Widodo's vision of Indonesia as a regional maritime power.
"We see that as a healthy and a very, very critical part of ensuring that our words are more than just words about wanting peace, but we actually work for peace in this region," he said.
North Korea, Rohingya crisis
The two defense chiefs also discussed other regional security concerns, such as the Rohingya refugees forced to flee to Bangladesh over the past five months, due to a violent crackdown by Myanmar's military following attacks by Rohingya insurgents in Rakhine state.
This population could become vulnerable to terrorist ideologies if they felt that no country would accept them, Ryamizard said.
Mattis, for his part, said the suffering of the Rohingya went beyond what had been portrayed in the media.
"This is a tragedy that's worse than anything that CNN or BBC has been able to portray about what has happened to these people," Mattis told reporters, according to Reuters.
"And the United States has been engaged vigorously in the diplomatic realm trying to resolve this, engaged with humanitarian aid, a lot of money going into humanitarian aid," he said.
The two defense ministers also discussed North Korea, Ryamizard said. "We shouldn't provoke, but we invite the U.N. to pressure North Korea to implement international law," he said.
U.S. diplomats have lobbied countries in the region to downgrade ties with North Korea in the wake of an escalation of North Korean missile tests over the past year. All 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations maintain relations with North Korea, and Pyongyang is also a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).
Washington also cited the assassination of the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Malaysia when it put Pyongyang back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism in November.


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BENARNEWS- Six Southeast Asian countries on Thursday kicked off an information and intelligence-sharing initiative aimed at helping them to respond more quickly and accurately to cross-border security threats.
Indonesian Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu and senior defense officials from Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines were on hand for the soft launch of the "Our Eyes Initiative" after a day of hashing out the operation details.
"As the ASEAN region is facing real threats, the soft launch of Our Eyes will hopefully provide the right impetus for defense leadership in the fight against terrorism and radicalism in the region," Ryamizard said.
Ryamizard added that cooperation among the six nations could eventually be expanded to other security areas and include other ASEAN members.
By exchanging information, participating ASEAN member-states will be faster and more accurate in tackling terrorist threats, he said.
"Given that each country has a different way of handling threats, synergy and coordination are needed to obtain strategic information," he added.
'Significant'
Indonesia proposed the "mini-Interpol" in October at the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting in the Philippines, shortly after that country defeated militants linked to the Islamic State (IS) who occupied the southern Philippine city of Marawi. Fleeing combatants could seek refuge in other countries, Ryamizard warned at the time.
Malaysian and Indonesian nationals were among foreign fighters killed in Marawi, but others are known to have escaped the five-month battle.
Nations in the region are also wary of foreign fighters returning home from Syria and Iraq now that IS has been defeated there.
The concept for "Our Eyes" comes from the "Five Eyes" intel-sharing pact among Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
John Blaxland, an intelligence analyst from Australian National University, said ASEAN nations have had a "high level of distrust" around intelligence cooperation and called the multilateral initiative " a significant development."
"ASEAN has long struggled with getting beyond superficiality when it comes to collaboration on security matters," Reuters news agency quoted him as saying.
The United States also agreed to provide sophisticated tools to support the effort,  Ryamizard said earlier this week after meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis in Jakarta.
Holistic approaches
Malaysian Deputy Defense Minister Mohammad Johari welcomed the new effort.
"As we face the various security threats and challenges – complex and trans-boundary in nature – it imposes upon us the need to formulate a new collective perspective that is agreeable and workable in our region," he said in remarks delivered at the launch.
"We should embark on holistic approaches between the governments using hard power and soft power methods so that we could eliminate the threat of Daesh and other forms of terrorism in our region," he said, using an alternate name for IS.
He noted that Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines had launched trilateral maritime and air patrols in 2017 in an effort to end piracy, maritime kidnappings and other illegal activity in the Sulu Sea, which lies between the three countries.
Earlier this month, the Philippine and Indonesian militaries agreed to boost cooperation to monitor cross-border movements of their respective nationals, such as by establishing a hotline to alert one another about security and terrorist threats along their shared frontier.


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BENARNEWS- Women are increasingly being targeted by terrorist recruiters, according to a senior Indonesian counter-terrorism official who promoted the need for open communication and moderate religious teachings at home to seminar attendees this week.
But, at the same time, women are perfect agents for preventing terrorism in Indonesia, said Police Brig. Gen. Hamli, director of prevention at the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT).
The downfall of Islamic State (IS) strongholds in the Middle East last year forced the militant group to order its recruiters to target potential sympathizers in their countries.
"Women are prone to becoming their targets," Hamli told those attending the seminar, which took place in Kulon Progo regency in Yogyakarta province on Tuesday.
The seminar was titled "Radicalism, Extremism, and Terrorism Prevention Among Villagers and Women's Participation Optimization."
"Women are expected to get sympathy from others and people usually tend to suspect women less. They are considered perfect candidates to become suicide bombers," he said.
Go-betweens, masterminds
In 2016, police arrested two women, Dian Yulia Novi and Ika Puspitasari, after they allegedly planned suicide bomb attacks.
Dian was arrested by the anti-terror squad in Bekasi, West Java, breaking up her alleged plan to blow herself up outside the State Palace complex in Jakarta. Ika was apprehended in Purworejo, Central Java, on suspicion of plotting to attack an area in Bali.
In the past, women were involved indirectly in terror acts by hiding their husbands and other men, the BNPT official suggested.
"Women are not just victims [in terrorism] these days. They're now also go-betweens and even the masterminds," Hamli said.
Women used to follow their husbands in planning terror attacks, according to Rindang Farihah, director of the Mitra Wacana Women's Resource Center (WRC), an NGO based in Yogyakarta.
"They maybe were just followers. But they're developing their skills as recruiters or fund raisers," Rindang said.
Attendee Widayati, 45, said the seminar made her aware that she and other women needed to be vigilant.
"Now I know how and why we need to keep the communication among family members, particularly children, open. We need to keep our eyes on them carefully and be informed about whom they befriend," she said.
Concrete efforts
The likelihood of women and children being targeted by militant groups can be minimized if women take some simple yet effective steps to prevent radicalism, Hamli said.
"Open communication among family members is effective to tear down terrorism doctrines indicated by extreme and irrational ways of thinking," he said.
A mother, he added, should be active in well-established groups such as the Family Welfare Movement (PKK) or moderate religious organizations.
"Mothers also should be firm in carefully watching the use of communication devices among family members," Hamli said. Radical doctrines by extremist groups are easily found on social media platforms, according to the national police.
Another audience member, Dewi Susilowati, 38, said she demanded that her children seek permission before going out with friends.
"I know what they do on social media because I keep my eyes on them most of the time. I also demand they not lock their phones with passwords so I can inspect them at any time," she said.
"I was always worried about promiscuous behavior. Turns out you also have to be vigilant about radicalism."
Abdul Muhaimin, leader of the Yogyakarta Terrorism Prevention Communication Forum, said women were the most important figures in keeping family members away from radicalism. Mothers in particular must be role models.
"The quality of a generation lies in mothers' hands, especially now when social life has fewer boundaries," he said.


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BENARNEWS- Human rights activists condemned the arrest of 12 transgender people in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province after police raided five salons during what they called an operation to combat immorality.
Witnesses said police officers cut off the hair of the arrestees and took them to a police station in North Aceh regency, where they ordered them to roll around on the ground, run and chant loudly.
"The police should release them because they do not violate the Qanun Jinayat," Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono told BenarNews on Monday.
"Those people did not have sex. They're in the salon, working, talking," Andreas said.
Islamic Sharia law is in force in Aceh, Indonesia's westernmost province. The Qanun Jinayat, Aceh's sharia criminal code, allows for up to 100 strokes or 1,000 grams of gold or 100 months in jail for gay sex or sodomy.
Arrested in raids late Saturday and early Sunday, the detainees, known as waria in Indonesian, were being held at the local police station on Monday to "be coached back as real men," an official said.
"The longest is five days to give them a physical coach to make them become men again. Coaching on morality and religiousness are conducted by ulamas (Muslim scholars)," North Aceh Regency Police Chief Ahmad Untung Surianata told BenarNews.
Untung said the arrests were not punishment for working in the salons.
"Why as men do they act like that? None of our offspring are transgender," he said. "School children are disturbed. In the future they can be influenced."
Hartoyo, a Jakarta-based LGBT activist from Aceh, denounced the raids on Facebook.
"You guys are barbaric. You claimed to implement Islamic Sharia, but your behavior is like Satan. If they are wrong, what right do you have to judge them without legal process," he wrote. "Is this what you are?"
'Some of them were crying'
Untung said he expected such a response from LGBT activists.
"We are fine, but many are worried that someone in their family will become transgender," he said explaining why police conducted what he called a "morality operation." "We do this to prevent the increasing number on transgenders here."
"We received reports from mothers that their sons were teased by transgender women," he said, adding, "I already asked for permission from ulemas, then I did the raids."
Untung said some of those arrested are drug users and in some cases police found downloads of sex acts on their mobile phones.
The police chief said the Aceh community supported officers' efforts, adding that some people tried to join police in the raids.
"There are people who came who wanted to attack. I said you are not allowed," Untung said. "They are members of our society, too. Let them have the coaching by police."
Bystanders recorded the scene of the detainees at the police station and posted it to social media.
"Police told them to take off their clothes," said a witness who did not want to reveal his name, adding officers then told them to wear men's clothes.
"Some of them were crying when they were taken by security forces to the police station," he added.
Untung told the state news agency Antara that the detainees were told to chant loudly until their male voices came out. He also justified the haircuts.
"They're like men again, macho," Untung said. "We are surprised the government did not do this a long time ago."

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A man is caned in Banda Aceh, Indonesia for committing a homosexual act, May 23, 2017. (Nurdin Hasan/BenarNews)



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BENARNEWS- Celebrating World Hijab Day on Thursday, Muslim women journalists in Indonesia said they overcame hurdles in how some reacted to the way they dressed and are finding it easier to work while wearing headscarves.
The women are members of the Hijab-Wearing Journalists Community (KJB) founded by a handful of Indonesian women in 2012. Today, about 100 hijab-wearing women work in TV, radio, print and online media across the country.
"We've gone through all the challenges. Currently there are many women journalists who wear hijabs and they are professional and independent," KJB leader Trifty Qurrota Aini told BenarNews.
A hijab is a traditional scarf that women in the Muslim world wear to cover their head, ears and neck while keeping their faces exposed.
"We are journalists and we are neutral, our activities consist of things related with education, social issues, religion and fashion."
The celebration held at the U.S. Embassy's cultural center in Jakarta featured an international Skype discussion and a video message from Nazma Khan, a Bangladeshi woman living in New York City who initiated the global event five years ago.
Khan, who moved with her family to New York City when she was 11, started World Hijab Day on Feb. 1, 2013, to allow women of all religions throughout the world to experience how others react to them wearing headscarves.
This year, 145 countries, including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand hosted events to mark the day.
Founder's story
About a year after she set up a website, worldhijabday.com, Khan posted a video to YouTube in which she recounted the taunts she had received beginning with her school days in New York.
"I had no idea a piece of fabric on my head would cause so much pain for the next several years," she said, adding she was taunted by boys and girls alike. She used the boys' entrance at school because she was afraid of the other girls.
Even a teacher mocked her for the way she dressed.
"He was supposed to protect me and help me boost my confidence," she said. "He did the opposite by crushing my self-esteem."
Khan said she could have dropped out, but instead finished first in her class. She started college in New York City around the time of the Sept. 11 attacks.
"Of course I could never avoid those stares," she said of classmates and fellow New Yorkers.
Controversy
Across the world, hijabs have courted controversy.
Late last year, Malaysia's tourism minister warned hotels to drop policies banning female employees from wearing hijabs while working the front desk.
Tourism Minister Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz issued his warning after a local union revealed that it had received complaints from female hotel employees, who said they had been prohibited from wearing headscarves while manning the front desk. Students in hospitality and tourism courses had also been told to remove their hijabs during internships or face the prospect of not being hired later.
More recently, women in Iran were arrested for removing their hijabs and waving them from sticks. Their acts of defiance were posted on social media sites.
At the same time, the French parliament adopted a "neutral" dress code banning lawmakers from wearing hijabs and other religious symbols. A government leader defending the code called it in line with a 2004 law banning students and teachers from wearing conspicuous religious symbols at school.

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Indonesian and Malaysian women watch a giant screen in Jakarta as they take part in a Skype discussion with women from the United States and Britain to mark World Hijab Day, Feb. 1, 2018. (Nisita Kirana Pratiwi/BenarNews)

 
Tales of discrimination
At Thursday's event in Jakarta, some participants shared their stories of discrimination for wearing a hijab.
KJB member Nikmatul Sholihah said she had a tough time applying for visas to countries where Muslims were in the minority.
Another participant said that even in Indonesia, a Muslim-majority country, she had experienced discrimination.
"I visited a university and there was one person staring at me from the top to the bottom," Amanda Kusuma Wardhani told BenarNews.
Except for the conservative western province of Aceh, where sharia law is in force and Muslim women are required to wear the hijab, dressing with the headscarf is optional for Muslim women in other parts of Indonesia.
Trifty, the head of KJB, said Muslim women who wore hijabs could be stereotyped as radicals or even terrorists.
"This is the challenge for KJB on how we spread the spirit to Muslim women, especially as journalists who uphold the religion and must convince people that women in hijabs are not radical," Trifty said.
She applauded the growing number of women who wear a hijab each day.
"Of course we are very happy. That means Muslim women with hijabs have been well received by companies and it is not regarded as something that hinders success," the former television journalist said.
Amaliah Begum, Indonesia's ambassador for World Hijab Day, told attendees they needed to prove that the negative stigma put on them by others was wrong.
"We should talk to them nicely, explain to them, and inspire them," she said.
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BENARNEWS- More than 100 people rallied in Indonesia's Aceh province Friday in support of the police chief who sought permission from Islamic scholars before raiding five beauty salons and detaining 12 transgender people last weekend.
The rally following Friday prayers came days after national Police Chief Gen. Tito Karnavian ordered an investigation into the raids, according to a Human Rights Watch statement.
Aceh Gov. Irwandi Yusuf and several other senior officials spoke at the rally outside the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque in support of North Aceh Regency Police Chief Ahmad Untung Surianata, also known as Untung Sangaji.
The detainees were released Monday after officers cut their hair, made them them put on men's clothing and had them chant loudly to bring out their male voices.
"We do not hate LGBT people, but what we hate is their behavior," Yusuf said at the rally. "We cannot blame the actions of the North Aceh police."
Earlier this week, Untung defended the actions of his police officers on Saturday and Sunday. "I asked for permission from ulemas, then I did the raids."
The detainees were held to "be coached back as real men," before being released Monday night.
"We released them. They were not arrested but nurtured to become men. And it turns out they can be men," he told BenarNews on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, in Jakarta, National Police spokesman Brig. Pol. Mohammad Iqbal told BenarNews that any officer who committed a mistake during the arrests or subsequent treatment of the detainees would face possible sanctions.
"If a crime was committed, a criminal sentence will be given. We will do the investigation," he said.
The national police chief reports directly to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, who in 2016 supported members of the LGBT community, declaring police must act against anyone who tries to harm them or deny their rights.
"Karnavian's rebuke of the Aceh raid is a good start, but police need to stop these raids altogether to restore public confidence," HRW said in a press release, adding the raids were part of a disturbing pattern where police invade private places such as hotel rooms, homes, clubs and beauty salons to harass a minority group.
Aceh is the only Indonesian province where Islamic Sharia law is implemented.
After Acehnese authorities on Wednesday issued a letter to airlines stating that female Muslim flight attendants must wear hijabs when they fly into Aceh, AirAsia announced it would employ only male cabin crews on flights to the province, the Associated Press reported.
Nisita Kirana Pratiwi in Jakarta contributed to this story.


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BENARNEWS- Myanmar's persecution of the Rohingya Muslims and atrocities that forced nearly 700,000 of them to seek shelter in Bangladesh could spawn a regional security crisis along religious lines, the U.N.'s human rights chief warned Monday in a speech in Indonesia.
"Genocide and ethnic cleansing" may have occurred when security forces in Buddhist-majority Myanmar launched a brutal crackdown in Rakhine state that caused the latest exodus of the Rohingya minority toward southeastern Bangladesh, Zeid Ra-ad al-Hussein told a regional conference in Jakarta marking the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Zeid opened his speech by pointing to five decades of systematic discrimination and violence against the stateless Rohingya" by Myanmar, saying this was a case in the Asia-Pacific region where "rights have gone wrong."
"Myanmar faces a very serious crisis – with a potentially severe impact on the security of the region," said Zeid, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, according to a transcript.
"It is sometimes said that today's human rights violations will become tomorrow's conflicts. If the Rohingya crisis were to spark a broader conflict based on religious identities, the ensuing disputes could be a cause for great alarm."
He did not elaborate on how such a crisis might take shape and widen outside Myanmar's boundaries.
At least 688,000 Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh since late August 2017 amid a military crackdown that followed attacks on government security posts by the insurgent group known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).
The exodus from Rakhine, combined with reports about alleged atrocities committed against Rohingya civilians, led to anti-Myanmar protests in Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh and other countries with large or significant Muslim populations.
Zeid, who was starting a three-day visit to Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, gave his remarks after the Associated Press (AP) broke a report last week saying it had confirmed the existence of more than five previously unreported mass graves in Rakhine through interviews of survivors in refugee camps in Bangladesh, including one who provided time-stamped cellphone videos.
In chilling detail, the report described how Myanmar security forces and Buddhist militiamen allegedly used an acid to disfigure Rohingya victims of a massacre in Gu Dar Pyin, a village in Buthidaung township, in order to make it difficult to identify the bodies.
On Friday, Myanmar reiterated its denial that massacres had occurred in troubled Rakhine state and said an investigation had found no evidence to support the claims made in the AP report. The government, however, had blocked reporters and U.N. investigators from entering the areas in Rakhine to verify similar allegations.
Although a definitive finding should be made by an appropriate tribunal, the U.N. had documented brutal killings and sexual violence allegedly perpetrated by Myanmar security forces against the Rohingya, Zeid said.
The U.N. and the United States had previously labeled the crackdown in Rakhine as "ethnic cleansing."
According to a report published by Geneva-based Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in December, at least 6,700 Rohingya Muslims, including 730 children younger than five, were killed during the first month of last year's crackdown.
Last week, Rohingya refugees, who said they collected data by going door to door in refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh, told BenarNews that they had turned over a list of almost 4,400 Rohingya killed in Rakhine since October 2016 to U.N. special envoy Yangee Lee.
On Feb. 1, Lee, who visited Bangladesh between Jan. 18 and 24, said that the violence against the Muslim minority bore "the hallmarks of a genocide."


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BENARNEWS- An Indonesian court convicted and sentenced a militant linked to the Islamic State (IS) to 10 years in prison Tuesday for smuggling handguns from the Philippines and being involved in funding terrorism and plotting attacks in Indonesia.
Suryadi Mas'ud (alias Abu Ridho), 45, a member of pro-IS Indonesian extremist group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), had purchased firearms in the Philippines for terrorist acts in his home country, chief judge Machri Hendra, who led a three-judge panel, told the West Jakarta District Court.
"What the defendant did has created public fear," the judge said. On top of the 10-year sentence, the court ordered Suryadi to pay a fine of 50 million rupiah (about U.S. $3,690).
The defendant reacted to the verdict with a smile, then walked toward reporters who were clustered at the back of the courtroom, and said, "You all have to abide by Allah and repent. We are nearing the apocalypse."
Suryadi then turned around, raised a finger and shouted "Allahu Akbar" [God is the greatest.]
"I accept [the verdict]," he told the judges.
His prison term matched the punishment sought by prosecutors.
Involved in 2002 bombing
The conviction is Suryadi's third. In 2003, he was sentenced to eight years in prison for a bombing that killed three people and injured 11 at a McDonald's in Makassar, South Sulawesi province, the year before.
During his sentencing in that case, prosecutors said Suryadi had facilitated the travel of Indonesians to the southern Philippines and helped them join insurgents fighting the Manila government.
He was released in April 2009 and arrested in 2010 by Densus 88, the Indonesian police anti-terror unit, for his alleged involvement in paramilitary training for the terrorist group Jamaah Islamiyah, the forerunner of JAD, in Aceh province. He was released in 2014.
In March 2017, Densus 88 arrested Suryadi in West Java for allegedly smuggling firearms from the southern Philippines into Indonesia.
The court said it had considered Suryadi's previous crimes before handing down his latest sentence.
"The defendant has not shown any remorse," judge Machri said.
Suryadi fought alongside the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebel group against Philippine security forces from 1996 to 2000, court documents said.
Suryadi paid Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines about $30,000 for 18 assault rifles and five handguns, but was able to smuggle only five handguns into Indonesia through North Sulawesi, prosecutors said.
His lawyer, Faris, who uses one name, told BenarNews his client did not plan to appeal.
"Although we did not get justice, all is back to the defendant, who already accepted the ruling," he said.
Indonesian police have blamed JAD as the group responsible for a terrorist attack in central Jakarta that left eight people dead, including four perpetrators, in January 2016, in the first terror act claimed by IS in Southeast Asia.
Last year, as many as 156 suspected terrorists were caught in Indonesia and another 16 were shot and killed during police raids. Of those arrested, 76 people, including Suryadi, were put on trial and 10 were convicted, as of the end of December.


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BENARNEWS- The U.N.'s human rights chief and parliamentarians from Southeast Asian countries on Wednesday called on Indonesia to refrain from fanning discrimination against LGBT people and others by dropping efforts to make sex outside of marriage and same-sex relationships unlawful.
Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, issued a statement during a visit to Jakarta urging Indonesian lawmakers to not pass amendments to the country's criminal code. He said these could make members of its LGBT community more vulnerable to discrimination amid an atmosphere of growing hostility.
"At a time when it is consolidating its democratic gains, we urge Indonesians to move forward – not backwards – on human rights and resist attempts to introduce new forms of discrimination in law," Zeid said on the final day of his three-day trip to Indonesia's capital.
"LGBT Indonesians already face increasing stigma, threats and intimidation. The hateful rhetoric against this community that is being cultivated seemingly for cynical purposes will only deepen their suffering and create unnecessary divisions," he said, noting that the amendments would effectively "criminalize large sections of the poor and marginalized."
In response, a government official said Indonesia would punish LGBT behavior, not the people themselves.
"Indonesia has its own culture and beliefs that promoting LGBT publically cannot be accepted," kompas.com, an Indonesian news website, quoted Minister of Law and Human Rights Yasonna Laoly as saying.
Meanwhile, the ASEAN Parliamentarian for Human Rights (APHR), which describes itself as an organization of parliamentarians and influential people from member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), said the legislative amendments being debated in Indonesia went against freedom. Indonesia is one of 10 ASEAN members and one of the 50-year-old bloc's founders.
"These amendments are a blatant violation of all Indonesians' right to privacy and their fundamental liberties. It is extremely worrying that private affairs between two consenting, law-abiding adults could very soon be opened to government interference and scrutiny," board member Teddy Baguilat of the Philippines said in a statement issued by APHR.
"If passed, these changes to the Criminal Code will reinforce existing prejudices and discrimination faced by an already vulnerable community in Indonesia, and legitimize ongoing bullying, homophobic violence, and police abuse," he added.
The group noted that support for the changes comes at a time of growing religious extremism in Indonesia.
In January, Aceh police arrested 12 transgender people following raids of five salons, cut their hair, ordered them to roll on the ground, run and chant loudly to bring out their male voices. Islamic Sharia law is in force in Aceh, Indonesia's most religiously conservative province.
Indonesian rights activist Hartoyo, who goes by one name, said Zeid's statement affirmed his belief that anti-LGBT discrimination in Indonesia was something to be concerned about.
"This issue has become an international concern. This is the challenge of this nation, that there is discrimination and violence against LGBT community, and there should be protections for this group," he told BenarNews.
Anti-LGBT sentiment growing: polls
Zeid, the U.N. rights chief, discussed his concerns about the LGBT community on Tuesday when he met with President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, who is likely to seek re-election in 2019. In 2016, the president declared there should be no discrimination against anyone and that police needed to stop groups or individuals who sought to harm members of the LGBT community.
Most of the country sees the LGBT community as a threat, according to a recent survey by a Jakarta-based firm, Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting.
A September 2017 survey showed 85.4 percent of the nation felt threatened by LGBT people – a figure that increased to 87.6 percent three months later. Additionally, 79.1 percent of respondents objected to having LGBT neighbors.
"The majority of citizens also object if LGBT become government officials, such as mayors, governors, or president," SMRC Director Ade Armando said in a news release posted on the firm's website.
Despite those concerns, 57.7 percent of Indonesians believed that LGBT members had rights and about 50 percent of the public believed the government was obligated to protect them, according to the survey.


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BENARNEWS- Following advice from the top Muslim clerical body, Indonesian lawmakers are poised to pass a set of revisions to the country's penal code that would criminalize extramarital sex and gay sex.
During a meeting with House Speaker Bambang Soesatyo and members of the bill deliberation committee on Tuesday, the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) called for clauses that would expand the definition of adultery and gay sex between consenting adults, according to MUI legal committee chairman Basri Barmanda.
"We also asked the lawmakers to impose heavier sentences to such offenders. Thank God our requests have been accomodated," Basri told BenarNews.
The proposed revisions to the criminal code, which could be voted on next week, offer a five-year prison term for adultery and one year for couples accused of cohabitation.
Arsul Sani, a legislator from the Islamic-based United Development Party, attended the meeting with MUI and said in January that people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) could be prosecuted because of their "deviant behavior."
"We are going to be firm, that we should forbid those kinds of relationships," Bambang told reporters after the meeting. "The fact that they occur in private, only God knows, but the state has to regulate it when same-sex relationship is shown in public and causes public anxiety."
The parliament is expected to vote on Feb. 14 following 12 years of deliberation to revise the country's outdated penal code known by its acronym KUHP.
Bambang said that parliament could delay the vote, saying some articles require additional discussion. The next hearing session starts on March 5 and finishes on April 27.
Potential crimes
In addition to changing penalties for adultery, the bill would allow the potential prosecution of health volunteers, social workers and NGO activists advocating for family planning by publicly showing contraceptives. Those prosecutions would not carry prison sentence but violators could face fines of up to 10 million rupiah (about U.S. $730).
"Criminalizing sexual behavior and [displaying] contraceptive tools could create a climate of fear in the midst of society and eventually makes people afraid to access health care because they could be prosecuted," Ajeng Gandini, a researcher from Jakarta-based rights advocacy group Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR) told BenarNews.
She also said the proposed bill is counterproductive to the government's family-planning program and contradicts the health law and other regulations.
"The use of contraception is inevitable. Therefore, information regarding the use of contraceptive tools should not be something prosecutable," Ajeng said.
Insults outlawed
The bill also includes an article advocates see as a setback to Indonesia's progressive democratization and freedom of expression by outlawing criticism of the government's leaders. The article states punishment for "publicly insulting the president or the vice president" is up to five years in prison.
ICJR Managing Director Erasmus Napitupulu cited the case of Zaadit Taqwa, the head of Universitas Indonesia's student executive body, who flashed President Joko Widodo with a yellow card – as a symbolic criticism to the president – during a university event on Feb 2.
Under the bill, flashing the yellow card, which is used by referees to signal warnings against players in football matches, could result in Zaadit being prosecuted for insulting the president, Erasmus said.
In 2006, the Constitutional Court overturned similar articles in the existing KUHP because they had originated from lese majeste, the royal defamation law, and were incompatible with Indonesia's efforts to be a democratic country where all citizens are equal.
"It is regrettable that the KUHP bill, which is intended to decolonialize the law, is going to reinstate a provision that could take us back to the colonial era. It will curb freedom of expression and goes against our constitution," Erasmus told BenarNews.
Justice and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly, a member of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), said the article that punishes insults of government leaders is not aimed at silencing criticism. Instead, it is necessary to prevent the country from becoming too liberal, he said.
In 2013, PDIP politicians strongly opposed a similar article in the bill, saying it would be a setback to democracy.
On Wednesday, U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein and parliamentarians from Southeast Asian countries called on Indonesia to not fan further discrimination against LGBT people and others, and drop efforts to pass the amendments.
"At a time when it is consolidating its democratic gains, we urge Indonesians to move forward – not backward – on human rights and resist attempts to introduce new forms of discrimination in law," Zeid said on the final day of his three-day trip to Indonesia's capital.
The ASEAN Parliamentarian for Human Rights (APHR) said the legislative amendments being debated in Indonesia went against freedom.
"These amendments are a blatant violation of all Indonesians' right to privacy and their fundamental liberties," board member Teddy Baguilat of the Philippines said in a statement issued by APHR. "It is extremely worrying that private affairs between two consenting, law-abiding adults could very soon be opened to government interference and scrutiny."


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BENARNEWS- Police shot and wounded a sword-wielding man who attacked a church congregation during Mass on Sunday in Indonesia's Yogyakarta province, injuring five people including a German priest, according to local authorities who said they had not determined a motive.
The suspect and the five others who were wounded at the St. Lidwina Church in Slemen regency were being treated on Sunday evening (Jakarta time) at local hospitals for injuries that were not life threatening. Police said they had not yet interviewed the man in custody to determine why he carried out the attack.
"We are still investigating the case," Yogyakarta police spokesman Yulianto told BenarNews.
"We haven't found leads to terrorism yet and it doesn't seem to be terrorism," he said, adding that police also had found no evidence the attack was religiously motivated against members of Indonesia's small Christian minority.
But Gen. Ari Dono Sukmanto Ari, the chief of the national police's criminal investigation division, said Densus 88, an elite unit often deployed in counter-terrorist operations, would be sent to Slemen to assist in the case "to examine whether this is actually an act of terror or action by an individual as a lone wolf," according to CNN.
Police in Yogyakarta province identified the suspect as Suliyono, a 23-year-old university student from Banyuwangi regency in East Java province.
Apart from the priest, who was identified as Romo Karl Edmund Prier, 80, a German missionary who has lived in Indonesia since 1964, three of the other injured people were churchgoers. The priest suffered cuts to the back of his head and shoulders, according to an eyewitness account.
The policeman who wounded the attacker with two shots to the legs was injured by the man with the Samurai-like sword as the officer intervened to stop the attack, officials said.
According to eyewitnesses, the Sunday morning attack started when the suspect began shouting from outside the church. Then, he burst into the church, allegedly swinging his sword in all directions.
"When he entered, the Mass service had just begun, so all of the congregants were focused on prayers and the priest was at the altar," said Andhi Cahyo, a congregant.
A video of the incident posted on the social media platform WhatsApp showed the suspect dressed in black standing near the altar with his sword and a bag slung over a shoulder, as others appeared to order him to stand down.
"Everybody started panicking and screaming. I was scrambling to save my wife and children," Cahyo told Agence France-Presse.
According to reports, the suspect also damaged statues of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ, as well as destroyed some books in the church.

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In this photograph shot through a glass window, police investigators examine the interior of St. Lidwina Church in Yogyakarta province, Indonesia, following an attack by a sword-wielding man during Sunday Mass, Feb. 11, 2018. AP

 
City of Education
The church lies near the provincial capital of Yogyakarta, which is located on Java island and known as the City of Education because of its rich concentration of universities and cultural institutions.
Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country, is known for its long tradition of religious tolerance and embracing different faiths. But the atmosphere has grown more hostile lately as members of the small Christian minority have been targeted in recent attacks by militants and in religion-fueled campaigns by conservative groups from the majority.
In August 2016, a priest was injured by another knife-wielding man in what appeared to be a botched suicide-bombing attempt at a church in Sumatra, also during Sunday prayer services. In November that year, a small girl was killed in a Molotov cocktail attack at a church in Kalimantan that injured three other children.
And in late 2016 and early 2017, massive street demonstrations by hardline religious organizations called for Jakarta Gov. Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, an ethnic Chinese Indonesian and Christian, to be prosecuted over public comments that were deemed as and anti-Muslim and therefore blasphemous. The protests contributed to his losing last year's gubernatorial election and being convicted and sentenced to two years in prison on a blasphemy charge.
After Sunday's attack, the chief of Yogyakarta branch of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Lutfi Hamid, appealed to all parties to refrain from further violence.
"It is very heartbreaking. It happened when society and government are building harmonization between religious and many elements in the society. Whatever the reason for this is intolerant behavior," he told reporters.


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BENARNEWS- Saying there was no room for intolerance in the world's most populous Muslim nation, Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo on Monday condemned recent attacks on religious leaders, a day after a sword-wielding man slashed parishioners at a Catholic church and injured five people, including a German priest.
Jokowi made his statement on the same day reports emerged that Islamic hardliners had been issuing calls for knife attacks in Indonesia.
"There's no space for those who are against tolerance in our country, Indonesia, through both hate speech and violent acts," Jokowi told reporters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jakarta. "We have been living together side by side in harmony for decades despite diverse religious beliefs."
On Sunday, a 23-year-old man identified as Suliyono burst in, decapitated statues of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary and began slashing worshipers at St. Lidwina Catholic Church in central Yogyakarta province. He injured five people, including priest Karl Edmund Prier and a police officer before he was shot, officials said.
National Police Chief Tito Karnavian said Suliyono had recently visited cities known as hotbeds for militants, such as Poso in Central Sulawesi province and Magelang in Central Java province, according to the preliminary investigation. The suspect had planned to travel to Syria to fight with rebel groups there, Tito said.
"There's a strong indication that the attacker was radicalized, which led him to violence," Tito told reporters.
Yogyakarta Police Chief Ahmad Dhofiri said Suliyono underwent surgery for his injuries.
"We hope to begin questioning him today [Monday] because he just recovered from surgery this morning," Ahmad told reporters. "We will be supported by Densus 88 . We don't know yet if the investigation will be carried out in Yogyakarta or Jakarta."
Densus 88 is an elite unit often deployed in counter-terrorist operations.
Tito said investigators were trying to determine if Suliyono acted as a lone wolf – an individual who carries out terror attacks by himself – or if he was associated with a militant group.

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Yogyakarta Police Chief Ahmad Dhofiri speaks to reporters about Sunday's attack, Feb. 12, 2018. (Kusumasari Ayuningtyas/BenarNews)

 
Intolerant incidents
Sunday's attack was the latest in a series of intolerant acts recently, many targeting religious leaders.
On Jan. 27, a Muslim leader, Umar Basri, was tortured while praying at a mosque in Bandung, West Java. In February, a Muslim cleric, H.R. Prawoto, was tortured by a man who suffers from mental illness in West Java.
On Feb. 7, a group forced Buddhist monk Mulyanto Nurhalim and his followers to stop using his house as a place for the local Buddhist community to conduct religious activities.
National Police Spokesman Inspector Gen. Setyo Wasisto said officers are investigating intolerant acts against religious leaders to sooth potential tensions.
"We are working hard to solve the problems. But the police cannot work alone," he told BenarNews. "Participation from members of the public, particularly religious leaders, are important to prevent further intolerant acts."
Police need to anticipate and prevent any potential acts that threaten security targeting religious leaders or use religious sentiments to divide Indonesians, said Hendardi, chairman of Setara Institute, a Jakarta-based human rights group.
"Police are urged to take firm action against these intolerant groups for the sake of law enforcement," he said in a statement.
Meanwhile, an unnamed counter-terror official told Channel NewsAsia that radical groups were calling on militants last week to carry out attacks using knives. The official did not release details about what was said or what platforms were used to deliver the message.
JAD sentencing
Jokowi issued his statement as a Jakarta court sentenced JAD leader Zainal Anshori to seven years in prison after finding him guilty of trying to smuggle five weapons from the southern Philippines.
Last week, another pro-Islamic State JAD member was sentenced to 10 years for smuggling handguns, funding terrorism and plotting attacks in Indonesia.
Indonesian police blamed JAD for a January 2016 terrorist attack in central Jakarta that left eight people dead, including four perpetrators, in the first terror act claimed by IS in Southeast Asia. As many as 156 suspected terrorists were caught in Indonesia last year and another 16 were shot and killed during police raids.


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BENARNEWS- A jailed Indonesian cleric could face the death penalty after a court indicted him Thursday over allegations that he masterminded a deadly Islamic State-linked terror strike in Jakarta in January 2016 and other attacks from his prison cell.
Aman Abdurrahman, 46, had instructed others to use violence to create terror among the general public and cause mass casualties including the attack in Jakarta two years ago, prosecutor Anita Dewayani told the South Jakarta District Court.
Indictment documents presented Thursday said Aman had inspired terrorist acts from 2016 to 2017. These also included two bomb blasts that killed five people at a bus terminal in East Jakarta on May 24, 2017, and a November 2016 bomb attack on a church in East Kalimantan province that killed a small girl and injured three other children.
"He is the intellectual actor behind all the terror attacks," Anita told the court, referring to Aman.
On Jan. 14, 2016, two of four militants blew themselves up just before the lunch hour in central Jakarta's popular Sarinah shopping mall. The attack left eight people dead, including the four militants, and 23 other people injured. The attack was the first terrorist act claimed by Islamic State (IS) in Southeast Asia.
Anita later told reporters that Abdurrahman, who had pledged allegiance to IS, faced a life sentence or the death penalty, if convicted of the charges.
The handcuffed cleric, who has been described in Indonesian media as the country's most-dangerous extremist, arrived at the courthouse under tight security with counterterrorism officers carrying rifles standing guard outside the building. Aman wore a head scarf and an orange vest commonly used by criminal suspects.
Anita told the five-judge court panel that Aman founded the IS-linked Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a militant group that the United States had designated as a terrorist organization.
The judges appointed a lawyer for Aman, who told the court that he understood the charges and did not object to the trial.
"I object to some of the charges. But just continue with the trial," the defendant told the court.
Aman's indictment comes more than a week after another Indonesian court sentenced Suryadi Mas'ud (alias Abu Ridho), 45, an IS-linked militant, to 10 years in prison for smuggling handguns from the Philippines and being involved in funding terrorism and plotting attacks in Indonesia.
Since 2010, Aman has been serving a nine-year prison sentence for funding terrorist training camps in Indonesia's Aceh province. His jail term was supposed to end in August 2017 as part of the government's Independence Day sentence-reduction scheme, but he was re-arrested a few days before his release after officials charged him of involvement in other terror attacks.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian police on Thursday defended giving the highest award to the Philippine's top law-enforcement official despite criticism of a statement describing the man leading Manila's deadly drug war as a "rockstar-like inspiration."
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Ronald dela Rosa personally received the Medal of Honor from Indonesian Police Chief Gen. Tito Karnavian on Wednesday. Police chiefs of Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Australia and Brunei Darussalam also received the honor.
It was not clear why dela Rosa was chosen to received that medal, but a press statement from the PNP said it was bestowed because of his "important role in the cooperation and contribution to the security of Indonesia and the Philippines."
Media outlets quoted Karnavian as saying that dela Rosa was a "rockstar-like inspiration to the Indonesian national police and the Indonesian people on how to fight the war on drugs."
Human Rights Watch (HRW) reacted angrily to the announcement.
"That's a perverse assessment of a Philippine government official implicated in possible crimes against humanity for inciting and instigating killings linked to the government's  war on drugs," said Phelim Kine, a deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch.
Setyo Wasisto, spokesman of the Indonesian National Police, told BenarNews on Thursday that the medal was given based on cooperation between the two national police institutions.
"What we assess is cooperation between the [two] police [institutions] and not just now but that has existed for years," he said. "We do not assess [Manila's] internal policy."
Kine said that based on figures from nongovernmental groups and Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, more than 12,000 people had been killed in Manila's drug campaign since President Rodrigo Duterte took power in June 2016.
Amid the controversy, the Philippine police announced Thursday that more suspected drug pushers and addicts were killed in sustained counter-narcotics operations during the past two weeks.
The PNP said that since Duterte reactivated the police in the country's anti-drug war in December, "sixty-five died in police operations." The latest figure brings the total number of deaths to 4,033 since June 2016, according to a tally by BenarNews staff.
The government figures do not include the thousands believed to have been killed by pro-government vigilantes.
"Indonesia's police chief Karnavian has expressed fondness for violent extrajudicial approaches to illegal drug use previously. In July he publicly touted the shooting of drug dealers as the ideal approach," Kine said. "That's possible instigation of deadly violence."
On Aug. 17, 2017, Indonesian officials defended extra-judicial killings of suspected drug dealers one day after Amnesty International said they had tripled in the last year.
Indonesian police killed at least 60 drug suspects in 2017, compared to 18 in 2016, the rights group said, expressing alarm that Indonesia "could be looking to emulate the murderous 'war on drugs' in neighboring Philippines."
Dela Rosa, according to Manila newspapers, expressed his gratitude Wednesday to Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Karnavian.
"Thank you for this award and this will inspire me more to exert more effort in our drug war," he reportedly said in a video message.
Statement could backfire
"I understand that the award is given to motivate (Indonesian police) members who are in charge of drug eradication to be brave to act under two conditions, which are in accordance with the rule of law and still respect human rights," retired Indonesian Inspector General Bekto Suprapto told BenarNews,
But Muhammad Isnur, chairman of the Advocacy of Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), said Karnavian comments could backfire.
"This is not in accordance with what Tito promised during his nomination as the national police chief who will apply the concept of professional, modern and trustworthy, which means also respecting human rights," Isnur said referring to Karnavian by his first name.
On Thursday during a meeting at the Mobile Brigade Command Headquarters in Jakarta, Karnavian reminded his staff not to hesitate to shoot drug dealers who fight back when they are about to be arrested.
"Strict action, if there are drug dealers who fight back, shoot them," he said.
Last year, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said at least 4.5 million Indonesians had become addicted or exposed to drugs and called for lethal force against foreign drug dealers who resist arrest.
"Be firm, especially to foreign drug dealers who enter the country and resist arrest. Enough, just shoot them. Be merciless," he said in a July 21, 2017, speech in Jakarta.
Widodo's government has executed 18 convicted drug offenders amid protest from foreign governments and rights groups.


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BENARNEWS- Nurhayati bent to the dirt floor to gather peeled shallots that fell as she prepared lunch for her two children.
The 37-year-old first wife in a polygamous marriage spends much of her time in her modest kitchen, cooking fritters to sell in her village in Cilebut, a regency of Indonesia's West Java province.
"I didn't want it. But the children don't want their parents to separate," Nurhayati told BenarNews, recalling the time six years ago when her husband took a second wife against her wishes.
"I want to keep and raise my children. They're my everything. Maybe this is my fate, so I take it," Nurhayati, a peddler's wife, said as she began to weep.
Polygamy, frowned upon but legal under certain conditions in Indonesia, is increasing alongside the rise of conservative Islam in the Muslim-majority nation, activists say.
"The issue is escalating as fundamentalism is on the rise," Azriana Manalu, who chairs the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), told BenarNews.
Polygamy harms women who are locked in such marriages, according to the commission, which was established by presidential decree 20 years ago to eliminate violence against women.
"Polygamy is a violation of women's rights and a crime in married life ... Wives and the whole family members are cheated. Sadly, it's becoming a phenomenon in Indonesia," said Yuniyanti Chuzaifah, vice chair of Komnas Perempuan.
A trend
No hard data exists on the number of legal polygamous marriages in Indonesia, much less the unregistered, unofficial marriages sanctioned by Islamic clerics called nikah siri. Last month, however, the commission published a report linking polygamy to domestic abuse.
"Polygamy and nikah siri are threats to civil marriage. They keep violence against women behind closed doors," it said.
Nurhayati told BenarNews that after her husband took a second wife, she experienced an incident of physical abuse.
"It happened when I demanded him to pay for the children's school fee. He hit me and we got into a fight. Once, he didn't come home for two years and didn't send us money either. Now, I stop myself from asking much of him. I'm tired," she said.
Though the practice is frowned upon in Indonesia, polygamy is gaining popularity through social media and apps with names like AyoPoligami ["Let's Do Polygamy"] and Nikah Sirri.com, a racy site offering to help "families in hardship" auction their virgin daughters for "hundreds of millions of rupiah." That site has since been blocked by the government.
"I'm afraid it's becoming a trend because it's been given room on various social media platforms. We know some Muslim leaders proudly announced their polygamous marriage to the public by posting it on social media," Azriana said.
What the law says
Polygamy is permitted under certain conditions, according to Indonesia's Marriage Law. It stipulates that a man can have more than one wife as long he has his current spouse's consent and obtains a permit from a court. The man must be able to provide equal financial support to his different wives and families.
The law also states that a man can marry another woman, without divorcing his wife, if his current spouse "cannot perform her obligations as a wife," suffers from critical illness or physical disabilities, or is infertile.
Such marriages must be registered with the state to be legitimate, but unregistered illegal marriages also occur "because they are considered approved by religion or local culture," Azriana said.
By definition, nikah siri must be sanctified by an Islamic cleric. But many men who seek second wives aren't doing it out of religious belief, said Dwiyono Bayuadhi, 38, an Indonesian man who opposes polygamy.
"Nowadays, the reason for polygamy is mostly to fulfill one's sexual needs," he told BenarNews. "You see that most men practicing polygamy seek younger women to be their second wife. They just use religion as their reason."
Under proposed amendments to Indonesia's criminal code, people involved in nikah siri, extramarital relationships or homosexual sex could be prosecuted.
'I'm not his priority'
Asti, a 27-year-old resident of Jakarta, accepted a married man's proposal to become his second wife after Asti had divorced from another man.
"At first I didn't want to, I was worried the neighbors would gossip. But both of us felt comfortable with it, so we decided to marry," Asti told BenarNews.
Both Nurhayati and Asti asked that BenarNews only use their first names.
Asti said she accepted the proposal when her new husband promised to support her child financially. But, she said, this hasn't been enough for her emotionally.
"I'm not his priority. He often returns to his first wife. I feel hurt sometimes that I wish I had my husband only for me and never shared with another woman," Asti said.
"I once thought of getting divorced with him despite his commitment. But then I reconsidered it, telling myself that it is difficult to get a financially secure man to support us," she added


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BENARNEWS- An Indonesian district court next week will open a judicial review of former Jakarta Gov.  Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama's blasphemy conviction last year, an official said Tuesday.
Lawyers for Ahok filed a request earlier this month for a review of his case, pointing to what they said was a mistake in his May 2017 conviction and sentencing to two years in prison.
The North Jakarta District Court appointed a three-judge panel to hear the request on Monday, court spokesman Jootje Sampaleng told BenarNews.
"They [Ahok's lawyers] determined there was an error by the judges. They also refer to Buni Yani's verdict," said Jootje. He was referring to a man who uploaded an edited version of a video recording of a speech by Ahok that was deemed to contain blasphemous anti-Muslim remarks, which landed the then-governor of Jakarta into trouble. Ahok is a member of Indonesia's Christian and ethnic Chinese minority.
"The consideration and all reasons for the judicial review are to be read out at the first hearing," Jootje said, adding it that it would be open to the public.
Buni, in the meantime, filed an appeal to the Supreme Court after the Bandung District Court in West Java province convicted and sentenced him to 18 months in November 2017 for violating Indonesia's Law on Electronic Transactions and Information.
The court found Buni guilty of editing the September 2016 video in which Ahok warned residents of the Thousand Islands regency about people using Quranic verses for political gain. The edited video made Ahok appear to say that the Quran itself deceived people.
The video angered conservative Muslim groups whose members staged street protests in Jakarta demanding that Ahok be removed from office and prosecuted for allegedly defaming Islam. Buni's lawyer, Aldwin Rahadian, said his client appealed his conviction.
A legal analyst said Ahok's lawyers are right in filing for the judicial review.
"That is part of his efforts to be free from prison. It is fair," Suparji Ahmad, a legal analyst at Al Azhar University in Jakarta, told BenarNews.
Case to go before Supreme Court
A lawyer representing the ex-governor, Josefina Agatha Syukur, declined to discuss details of the review.
"We will reveal all of them at the first hearing," said Josefina, adding she did not know if Ahok would attend.
Supreme Court spokesman Abdullah, who uses one name only, said a convict who filed a petition for a judicial review was not required to attend the hearing.
The district court panel will hear the complaint and make a judgment that will be transferred to the Supreme Court for a final decision, he told BenarNews.
"It cannot be ascertained how long the Supreme Court's decision will take," Abdullah said, adding the district panel's deliberations could take three to four weeks.
Novel Bakmumin, a spokesman for the hardline Muslim group Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), said he wanted the Supreme Court to reject Ahok's case. A ruling in favor of Ahok would heat up the political situation ahead of regional elections later this year and the 2019 presidential election, Novel said.
"The nation can be more divided," said Novel, whose group led major protests in Jakarta in 2016 and 2017 calling for Ahok to be imprisoned. "Moreover, it is a sensitive issue of religious defamation that could offend Muslims."


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia is hosting a rare encounter between former terrorists and victims of terror in the hopes of strengthening its deradicalization programs by exposing perpetrators to the suffering they have caused.
The three-day reconciliation effort convened by the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) is taking place mostly behind closed doors at a luxury hotel in Jakarta, with an event open to the media on the final day, Wednesday.
Dozens of former terrorism convicts already work with the BNPT in trying to uproot violent extremist ideology in Indonesia, but some prisoners have shown no sign of remorse, officials say.
"The cooperative ones can whisper to them, 'these are the victims, not the police,'" Irfan Idris, BNPT director of deradicalization efforts, said Monday at the start of the event, referring to the fact that police are common targets for extremists in Indonesia.
BNPT Principal Secretary R. Gautama Wiranegara described the event as a breakthrough, the first of its kind since the worst terror attack in Indonesia – twin bombings in the beach town of Kuta, Bali in 2002 that killed 202 people and injured hundreds more.
"Hopefully this event can become a medium to channel productive suggestions to the government," he said.
Uneasy
Among 51 victims attending the event were two women who survived a bombing at the Marriott hotel in Jakarta on Aug. 5, 2003.  Twelve people died in that attack and more than 100 were wounded.
As a dozen of men – evidently former terrorism convicts – suddenly passed them in the hotel corridor, the pair stopped in their tracks.
"I don't know if I can do this," one said to her companion.
The women acknowledged they felt uneasy entering the event because the number of former terrorism convicts attending was more than twice the number of former victims.
"We should welcome everything good, but the worries are still there," one said. Both asked that their names not be used.
"I come here willingly, I welcome this meeting," she went on to say. "The perpetrators are human. Incidentally, they are Muslim as well. Why should we feel antipathy for them, and get angry again."
Asked what would be the first thing she would say to one of them, she replied with the Muslim greeting, Assalamu'alaikum (I salute you).
"We introduce ourselves, first. And then I will ask what can we do together, now and in the future. I don't want to ask, 'Why were you like this before? Why did you do it?' It's already in the past. I want to talk about now and in the future. No need to open old wounds."
"We want there to be no more terror events. Meaning, in the future, security should be improved so that the people of Indonesia are safe, peaceful, serene," her companion said.
She urged the government to pay attention to the health of victims of terror attacks, saying that many of them are still in need.
"Please don't put limits on health care, because many are still suffering .... there are still bomb fragments in their bodies, but they can no longer get a free check-up. We're really asking the government for this," she said.
Useful
A participant named Sofian said he had been arrested in Poso, Sulawesi – a remote Indonesian region where remnants of the al-Qaeda affiliate that carried out the Bali bombings were still hiding until a security operation flushed them out of the jungles in 2016.
The Jakarta native said he joined a radical movement in Poso because he felt compelled to address "injustice" following an outbreak of Muslim-Christian riots there in 2000 that drew many angry young Muslims to the region.
"Injustice in all areas, including  economic. I come from a lower middle class family. I felt economic pressure ... I felt called to action that was a form of resistance against the central government," he said.
He said he hoped something useful would come out of the encounter with victims.
"For example, how we can work together. Don't let it just be ceremonial," he said.


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BENARNEWS- The United States is taking steps to resume training with Indonesian special forces unit Kopassus, American officials said, after suspending military ties nearly two decades ago over human rights concerns.
The two governments are working through a process under American law that would allow Washington to re-establish military-to-military contact with Indonesia's elite army unit, U.S. Defense and State Department officials told BenarNews.
"We are going through the process of what is called 'remediation,'" Lt. Col. Chris Logan, spokesman for the Pentagon, said during a phone interview when asked to confirm reports that the U.S. military was restoring training with Kopassus.
"[T]hat is the desire in the States. But there are regulations we have to follow to be able to work with them."
In Jakarta, a spokesman for the U.S. embassy said last month's visit by Defense Secretary James Mattis had demonstrated that "we are committed to deepening our defense cooperation with Indonesia and are seeking opportunities for further engagement in various areas."
"All engagement activities are conducted in accordance with U.S. law," the spokesman told BenarNews via email. "We support Indonesia's efforts to promote human rights and the rule of law, and we continue to discuss the importance of accountability for past abuses."
Tying aid to rights
Under the so-called "Leahy Laws," which the U.S. Congress began to implement in 1998, Washington cut ties with Kopassus the following year over allegations that its forces had killed civilians and committed rights abuses in Indonesian-occupied East Timor as well as the Indonesian provinces of Aceh and West Papua.
The laws attach human rights conditions to congressional appropriations of U.S. military aid to foreign countries.
Under the Leahy Laws, Congress can prohibit U.S. assistance to any security unit of a foreign country, if there is evidence that it committed "a gross violation of human rights." This can include extrajudicial killings, torture and enforced disappearances.
The laws, codified under the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act, allow for the Defense and State departments to resume aid to and ties with a blacklisted unit through a "joint policy on remediation."
According to a State Department fact sheet on these laws, remediation "can occur when the Departments determine that the government of that country has taken, or is taking, effective measures to bring those responsible to justice" through investigations, prosecutions or administrative actions, among other things.
"We will abide by all the regulations in order to be able to work with all the military forces in Indonesia," said Logan, with the Pentagon.
"[W]hat it comes down to is we have to have a legitimate plan that would allow us to have a military-to-military engagement with them. We will not be able to do that until we have done this process," he added.
'No problem': Indonesian security minister
The interviews with U.S. officials followed recent comments about Kopassus by Wiranto, Indonesia's security minister and the former chief of its armed forces.
Last week, he told reporters that American restrictions on the unit had been lifted and the U.S. military would soon take part again with Kopassus in training exercises, after a 19-year hiatus.
"Yes, no more [restrictions on Kopassus]," Wiranto said. "It's been a month when I met a special envoy from the U.S. and we talked about it, there is no problem."
Wiranto made the remarks a day after a meeting between U.S. Ambassador Joseph R. Donovan and Moeldoko, President Jokowi's chief of staff.
Donovan said then that the United States was planning to resume a military training program with Kopassus, according to the Moeldoko's office.
Questions about accountability
However, it remained unclear whether any former Kopassus members, who had been accused of committing rights abuses while serving with the unit, would be brought to justice ahead of any restoration of full military ties.
Wiranto served as chief of the Indonesian military in 1999, when Kopassus was accused of carrying out abuses in East Timor, as people there voted in a U.N.-backed referendum to break free of Jakarta's rule.
Since the U.S. blacklisted Kopassus that year, some veterans from the unit have risen to prominent roles in Indonesian politics.
These include Prabowo Subianto, a former Kopassus commander whose forces were accused of killing civilians in Dili, the capital of East Timor, in 1983, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). In 2014, Prabowo, the chief of the Gerindra party, lost the presidential election to Joko "Jokowi" Widodo. Prabowo is also the former son-in-law of Suharto, Indonesia's late dictator who ruled for 32 years.
Another ex-Kopassus officer, Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, who served as deputy defense minister from 2010 till 2014, was allegedly involved with the unit in abducting student activists in Jakarta in 1997 and 1998, as well as abuses in East Timor in 1991 and 1999, HRW said.
"Those who are responsible still need to be brought to justice," Usman Hamid, the director of the Indonesian chapter of Amnesty International, told BenarNews.
Still, the prospect of ties being renewed between the U.S. military and the Indonesian special forces unit could help improve the image of Kopassus, according to a local analyst.
"[T]he resumption of cooperation can provide a good name for Kopassus and the Indonesian government because Kopassus has always been linked to human rights violations," said Muradi, a military expert based at Padjadjaran University in West Java.


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BENARNEWS- A Malaysian tycoon at the center of a criminal probe into billions of dollars stolen from corruption-tainted state fund 1MDB was not on board when Indonesian police and FBI agents seized a superyacht off Bali island, officials said Wednesday.
Businessman Low Taek Jho (alias Jho Low) had bought the 100-meter (300-foot) luxury vessel Equanimity – estimated to be worth U.S. $250 million – with some of the $4.5 billion allegedly misappropriated from sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials said in June 2017.
But Jho Low was not among the 34 people who were on the yacht, which was moored at Bali's Benoa Bay when Indonesian and U.S. authorities raided it on Tuesday before seizing the vessel on Wednesday, Agung Setya Imam Effendi, director of economic crimes at Indonesia's national police, told MetroTV.
"All of them were crew members. Thirty-four people in total," he told the station, which showed footage of Indonesian police and FBI agents interviewing crewmen on board the yacht. "Yes. The yacht was not carrying any passengers. All of them were crew members."

Agung said police started working with the FBI a week ago after the yacht was located in Indonesian waters. "We have legal confirmation that this asset is the result of a crime," he said.
"Based on our investigations, the ship had 34 crew members, all of them foreign nationals," Agung later told reporters.
Daniel Tahi Monang Silitonga, deputy director of the economic and special crimes unit of Indonesia's criminal investigation bureau, confirmed FBI agents were present when Indonesian police boarded the ship.
"We are researching the owner of the yacht. We'll release the results of that investigation later," he told reporters.
"FBI investigations [found that] part of the proceeds of that corruption were used to buy a ship that was sailing in Indonesia," he said, referring to the DOJ probe.
The yacht had been sailing in Indonesian waters since November 2017, he said.

MarineTraffic, a maritime database, had logged the yacht's docking at Sabang, a town on the island of Pulau Weh, northwest of Sumatra in October 2017, Malaysian news portal malaysiakini.com reported.

In August 2017, DOJ asked a California court to put aside 29 civil cases filed since July 2016 so it could launch a criminal investigation related to the debt-laden 1MDB, which is the target of money-laundering probes in at least one-half dozen countries.
The state fund has been tied to corruption allegations surrounding Prime Minister Najib Razak, who founded 1MDB but has denied any wrongdoing.
Court documents obtained by BenarNews show DOJ accused Jho Low of laundering more than $400 million stolen from 1MDB through acquisitions of properties in California, New York and London, a jet purchased for $35 million and the yacht.
In a statement emailed to the Malaysian media, a spokesman for Jho Low complained about the seizure because U.S. justice officials had "still not taken any steps to prove that any impropriety has occurred."
"It is therefore disappointing that, rather than reflecting on the deeply flawed and politically motivated allegations, the DOJ is continuing with its pattern of global over-reach – all based on entirely unsupported claims of wrongdoing," the spokesman said.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian officials pledged Wednesday to help former militants and survivors of terror attacks with jobs and scholarships, as the government hosted the final day of a reconciliation meeting in an effort to persuade convicted extremists to reject their violent past.
But the unprecedented face-to-face encounter, which the government hoped would be a significant step toward combating terrorism, drew fewer participants after two victims' rights groups boycotted the event held over three days in the ballroom of a Jakarta hotel, according to reports.
The meeting brought together 124 reformed militants and 51 victims, officials said, and it ended with the government pledging to help the alleged attackers and their victims.
"At least two programs can contribute in preparing former convicts and victims with proper skills required by the labor market," Hanif Dakhiri, the minister of manpower, said during the meeting, organized by the country's counterterrorism agency, which is known by its Indonesian acronym BNPT.
The ministry, Hanif said, would work with state-owned enterprises to recruit terror victims with disabilities.
"Because we have this mutual agreement requiring every company to recruit one percent of total employees from people with disabilities," Hanif said, adding that the government was also considering setting up startup businesses to help employ terror victims with the required skills.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has imprisoned hundreds of suspected extremists after nightclub bombings killed 202 people and injured hundreds more on Bali island 16 years ago.
But the country has struggled to convince jailed militants to join de-radicalization programs, and authorities have seen a resurgence in home-grown militancy inspired by the extremist group Islamic State (IS), officials said.
The gathering was part of the government's broad effort to tackle the nation's militancy problem.
Idrus Marham, the minister of social affairs, expressed hope that the event would not only serve to bring about forgiveness, but provide mutual cooperation.
"We are planning to help create their lives better for the long term," he said.
He said all family members of victims and former convicts must be included in the government's programs.
"There's no excuse that we can't help fund them in a certain period, let's say four to five years," he said.
Muhammad Nasir, minister of research, technology and higher education, said the children of the victims and former convicts would be registered to qualify for university scholarships, after receiving an assessment from the BNPT.
Higher education, Nasir said, would help fight radicalism.
"The way we educate students and protect campus life should be well-integrated and holistic. Every extracurricular activity must be assisted by a lecture and supervised by rector," Nasir said.
'Too risky for the victims'
Many participants interviewed by BenarNews described the event as a success, but the head of a survivors' group who decided not to go criticized holding the meeting, saying survivors needed more support and medical help from authorities.
"The mass reconciliation by BNPT (Indonesia's anti-terrorism agency) is too risky for the victims, in terms of their mental state and psychology, and for their trauma," Sucipto Hari Wibowo, co-founder of the Indonesian Survivors Foundation and a survivor of a deadly bombing at the Australian embassy in 2004, told Reuters news agency.
Ni Luh Erniati, the survivor foundation's adviser, told AFP news service that many victims could not attend the meeting because there were so many former convicts in the room.
"We're not ready psychologically," Erniati said. "We have forgiven them but we cannot predict what would happen if our emotions were ignited."
BNPT Chairman Suhardi Alius praised the event as a "prototype for a peaceful Indonesia."
But, he acknowledged, many invited victims did not attend.
"The possibility of trauma left by the terror acts and the will to revenge is there. But those who came today have a really big heart," he said during the meeting.
Ali Fauzi, a former terror convict and a brother of the trio of militants behind the 2002 Bali bombings – Ali Imron, Ali Ghufron and Amrozi – described the event as a success.
"There was this process of seeking forgiveness, affirmation, which I never expected," he said.
He also reached out to militants still planning to launch terror attacks.
"Let's improve our intellectual capacity," he said. "Let's unite so that Indonesia will be a great nation and respected by the international community."
Another victim who attended the event was Dwi Welasih, who survived a bombing at the Marriott hotel in Jakarta on Aug. 5, 2003. Twelve people died then and more than 100 were wounded.
She told BenarNews she was full of hope that the government would immediately bring the pledges of help into reality.
"I hope it gets a good response, gets processed and distributed among the victims," she said.
Chusnul Hotimah, a survivor of the Bali bombings, who suffers from permanent physical disabilities, also expressed hope that the reconciliation meeting would open everyone's eyes.
"It's enough. No more victims like me," she said. "No more terrorism in our country. Let's preserve our beloved country's unity."


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia's new anti-drug czar pledged Monday to carry on with the programs and policies of his predecessor, including gunning down narcotics suspects who violently resist arrest.
Inspector General Heru Winarko, the new chief of the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), spoke to reporters in Jakarta after a formal ceremony during which the outgoing head, Budi Waseso, turned over the reins.
"If they resist and they have a weapon, yes, there is no choice [other than shooting them]," Heru said, referring to suspected drug dealers.
Heru made the statement weeks after rights groups severely criticized the Indonesian national police force for handing its highest award to the Philippine's top law-enforcement official.
In February, Indonesian Police Chief Gen. Tito Karnavian gave the honor to Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Ronald dela Rosa and described the general leading Manila's deadly drug war as a "rockstar-like inspiration."
Heru's threat to use violent force came as police also ramped up their anti-narcotics efforts.
On Feb. 12, Karnavian ordered police to shoot drug dealers, especially foreign nationals, dead if they resisted arrest.
"If drug dealers resist, shoot [them] dead on the spot ... especially, foreign nationals who target Indonesia as a place to distribute drugs," the news portal BeritaSatu.com quoted Karnavian as saying. "Take firm action, shoot them dead."
Karnavian's comments came after authorities arrested four Taiwanese men who had allegedly tried to smuggle a ton of methamphetamine on a fishing vessel into the country.
'Be merciless': Jokowi
The orders to shoot drug suspects came from the very top of Indonesia's government.
Last year, when President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said at least 4.5 million Indonesians had become addicted or exposed to drugs, he called for lethal force against foreign drug dealers who resisted arrest.
"Be firm, especially to foreign drug dealers who enter the country and resist arrest. Enough, just shoot them. Be merciless," he said in a July 21 speech in Jakarta.
High-ranking police officials have recently called for tougher measures against drug-related crimes despite protests from rights groups.
Since 2015, Indonesia has executed 18 convicted drug offenders, Amnesty International said.
In 2017, according to official figures, police shot dead 79 people – 69 Indonesians and 10 foreigners – when they resisted arrest during drug-related incidents.
Police also arrested more than 58,000 drug suspects and authorities seized almost five tons of meth.
Bramantya Basuki, a researcher with Amnesty International Indonesia, cast doubt on the accuracy of the police figures.
Citing Amnesty's figures, Bramantya said police had shot dead 18 drug suspects, but that number grew to 99 in 2017.
"We have seen no signs of decline this year, because, until the end of February, there have been 13 people shot dead," he told BenarNews.
Ajeng Larasati, coordinator of research and policy at the Community Legal Aid Institute, said the threat of being summarily executed had failed to deter drug-related crimes in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.
"If the deterrent effect is the goal, the shooting incidents will not happen again," she told a press conference in Jakarta on Monday. "But this still happens every month."
The fatalities, she said, are often low-level drug dealers, not drug kingpins.
"If they die, big dealers can hire new ones. This would not stop the drug circulation," she said. "So, why don't we arrest them [instead of shooting them dead], so police can get information from them to reveal bigger dealers?"
Jakarta pales in comparison with Manila's level of extrajudicial killings.
But Heru's predecessor, Budi Waseso, said he had no objection to being compared with President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, where, according to rights groups, about 12,000 people have been shot dead in an anti-drug clampdown that began in June 2016.
"I'm crazier than Duterte," Budi said.


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BENARNEWS- The Federal Bureau of Investigation has requested a meeting with Indonesian police related to the handing over to the United States of a mega-yacht allegedly bought with money looted from Malaysian state investment fund 1MDB, officials in Indonesia said Thursday.
Indonesian and U.S. authorities last week impounded the Equanimity, a Cayman Islands-flagged vessel, while it was moored off the Indonesian island of Bali. 

"The FBI has asked me if they can meet me regarding the handing over process of the ship," Inspector Gen. Petrus Reinhard Golose, the Bali police chief, told BenarNews.
"The ship is still being held at Benoa Harbor in accordance with a court order," he said, adding that the yacht's captain, Rolf Andrian Henry Berry of South Africa, and its 29 crewmembers were on board.
News agencies, meanwhile, were reporting that Indonesia was preparing to hand over the yacht to U.S. authorities.
That "is in the process of being done," Agence France-Presse quoted Indonesian national police senior detective Daniel Silitonga on Thursday.
In civil lawsuits filed in June 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged that Malaysian business tycoon Jho Low, whose full name is Low Taek Jho, had paid U.S. $250 million for the 100-meter (300-foot) Equanimity by using some of the $4.5 billion allegedly misappropriated from the state fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
But Jho Low was not among the 34 people who were on the yacht when authorities raided it eight days ago, officials said. Low's whereabouts remain unknown.
Malaysia's police chief Mohamad Fuzi Harun said his office was awaiting information about the yacht.
"Malaysian police have not received any information, either from Indonesian authorities or the FBI, regarding the seizure of Equanimity on Feb. 28," Fuzi told BenarNews on Thursday.
Inspector Gen. Setyo Wasisto, the Indonesian national police spokesman, told reporters Friday that the yacht's Automatic Identification System, which would allow satellites to pinpoint its location, had been switched off several times in the waters around Singapore and the Philippines, before it entered Indonesian waters in November 2017.
Letter from the FBI
Indonesian police seized the Equanimity after receiving a letter from the FBI on Feb. 21 requesting help to enforce a court order, officials said.
The seizure came days before a March 16 court-mandated deadline for the DOJ to file its first report on the status of its criminal probe.
In August 2017, the department asked a California court to put aside its civil lawsuits seeking to recover real-estate and other assets because it was trying to protect evidence and witnesses in its ongoing criminal investigation. DOJ did not announce who were the targets of its criminal probe.
1MDB, at the center of money-laundering investigations in at least six countries, including Switzerland and Singapore, was formed in 2009 ostensibly to pursue projects that would benefit Malaysian citizens through development projects that primarily relied on the issuance of debt securities, U.S. officials said.
It was instead used to satiate the ostentatious lifestyle of those with power over it during a five-year period, between 2009 and 2014, according to court documents.
Low, who served as an adviser on the creation of TIA, the predecessor entity of 1MDB, publicly denied any involvement with the state fund, court documents said. He has never held a formal position at 1MDB.
Court documents obtained by BenarNews show that DOJ accused Low of laundering more than $400 million stolen from 1MDB through acquisitions of properties in California, New York and London. Other than the yacht, he also allegedly spent millions of dollars on paintings and a jet for $35 million.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who founded 1MDB in 2009, served as chairman of its advisory board, but Malaysian Attorney General Apandi Ali had earlier cleared him of any wrongdoing.
Najib and officials of the fund also denied the embezzlement allegations.
Funds shipped through multiple accounts
Equanimity, built by Oceanco in 2014 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, is equipped with a helicopter pad, an onboard gymnasium, a cinema, a massage room, a sauna and a plunge pool, according to court documents.
On Thursday, DOJ spokeswoman Nicole Navas Oxman also confirmed that Red Granite Pictures, a production company co-founded by Najib's stepson, Riza Shahriz Bin Abdul Aziz, agreed to pay the U.S. government $60 million to settle a DOJ lawsuit alleging that its movies were made using diverted funds from 1MDB.
Red Granite Pictures, which produced "Wolf of Wall Street," starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and big-budget comedies "Daddy's Home" and "Dumb and Dumber To," will pay the amount in three installments over the next 12 months, according to court documents obtained by BenarNews. The settlement agreement was filed with the U.S. district court in California on Tuesday.
"The Justice Department continues to seek to forfeit nearly $1.7 billion in assets that were acquired with public funds that the Department alleges were misappropriated from 1MDB," Navas Oxman told BenarNews in an emailed statement.
"This settlement does not release any individual or entity from criminal liability," she said.
Roni Toldanes in Washington contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- A former high-ranking civil servant from Batam could face life in prison if convicted of terrorism charges linked to his 2015 pilgrimage with his family to Syria, where he allegedly trained with the Islamic State (IS), prosecutors said Tuesday.
Dwi Djoko Wiwoho, 50, is standing trial in a West Jakarta court for allegedly undergoing firearms training with IS and funding the international militant group. Two relatives also face trials on similar charges.
Djoko, his wife and children and their relatives went through the government's weeks-long de-radicalization programs to help them re-enter Indonesian society after their return in August 2017.
Despite those efforts, the three men face separate trials in the same courthouse. The prosecutor began his case against Djoko on Tuesday by reading the criminal indictment.
"The defendant sold his house on July 2015 for 500 million rupiah (U.S. $36,372) and used part of that money to go to Syria," prosecutor Jaya Siahaan said.
"After five days, the defendant stopped training because he didn't want to be a soldier and only wanted to be a regular civilian who supports IS," the prosecutor said. "But the defendant's action violated the anti-terrorism law."
Djoko, who did not speak as the indictment was read against him, tilted his head during the session. The case will resume next Tuesday with witness testimony.
Others charged
The prosecutor said Djoko's brother-in-law, Iman Santoso, provoked the pilgrimage by delivering sermons on the obligation of jihad during family Quran recitations in Pancoran, South Jakarta.
"The defendant alongside his family agreed to go to Syria to join IS," Jaya said.
Iman allegedly facilitated travel arrangements for the group of 26 and found a local guide in Syria.
Djoko went to Syria with his wife, Ratna Nirmala, and three children along with his mother-in-law who died in Iraq. Iman and his brother, Heru Kurnia, also made the trip, leaving on Aug. 1, 2015, and remaining in Syria for almost two years.
Iman and Heru face similar charges in the same courthouse.

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Defendant Heru Kurnia faces a terrorism trial in a West Jakarta courtroom, March 13, 2018. [Arie Firdaus/BenarNews]

 
Return to Indonesia
Djoko and his family reportedly left the former IS capital Raqqa, Syria, in mid-June 2017. They said they were held in a Syrian refugee camp before being sent back to Indonesia.
After returning, the group underwent the Indonesian Counter Terrorism Agency (BNPT) repatriation program. They testified about their their time in Syria for a video posted Sept. 11, 2017, on BNPT's YouTube page.
In the video, Djoko and the others spoke of their regret in joining IS because that group lied to them and broke promises that their children would be educated in decent schools.
Instead, IS fighters wanted to marry his daughters, Djoko said.
"They asked when my youngest daughter would have her first period. They wanted me to notify them, " Djoko stated in the video.
Adhe Bhakti, a researcher at the Center for Radicalism and Deradicalization Studies, an independent think-tank in Jakarta, said the trials are a result of issues between BNPT and Densus 88, the nation's elite police force that arrested the three men.
"The fact that Djoko was arrested after he 'graduated' from the BNPT de-radicalization center points out coordination problems," Adhe said.
BNPT spokesman Irfan Idris told BenarNews that attendance at the de-radicalization center was for psychological assistance following a horrifying experience with IS.
"They haven't been convicted," he said, referring to the defendants. "De-radicalization will be conducted after they are convicted or released."


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian activists and non-governmental groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging a newly amended law that would allow people to go to jail for criticizing national politicians.
The revised Law on Representative Assemblies, also known as the MD3 law, came into force last week after the 560-member House of Representatives passed it in February, despite criticism from legal and media groups. They warned it could impinge on free speech and undermine the ability of Indonesians to hold politicians accountable.
On Wednesday in Jakarta, representatives of the Law and Constitution Study Forum (FKHK), People's Solidarity Network of the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) and two college students appeared before the Constitutional Court to urge the judges to overturn the amended law, which they described as unconstitutional.
"We are requesting to the Constitutional Court of Justice, to declare that Article 73, points 3, 4, 5, and 6, are against the Constitutional Law of 1945, and does not have a sustainable legal force," Irman Putra Sidin, a lawyer representing FKHK, told the court.
Irman was referring to a part of the amended law that empowers House (DPR) legislators to bring charges against people who "undermine its honor or that of its members."
Under the amendment, the House can place a person under arrest for more than 30 days, critics said.
The changed law, also permits House members to sue people whom they believe have "tainted" the honor of lawmakers, according to FKHK. Additionally, the group said, the amendment stipulates that the House Ethics Committee must first approve investigations into members of parliament before they are forwarded to the Office of the President for approval.
According to critics, the primary target of the new law is likely the KPK, the nation's beleaguered Corruption Eradication Commission. In December last year, prosecutors from the commission charged former parliamentary speaker Setya Novanto, accusing him of receiving at least U.S. $7.3 million in kickbacks in one of Indonesia's biggest graft scandals.
Komarudin, an advocate for the People's Solidarity Network, told the court that the new law would suppress criticism of parliamentarians.
"The phrase that said [any investigation] should have [the Ethics Committee's] consideration will obstruct investigations," he said. "Because senators who are being investigated cannot be questioned."
But Bambang Soesatyo, the new House speaker, issued an assurance Thursday that the amendment would not quash public criticism of lawmakers.
"I guarantee that anyone who criticizes the House will not be criminalized or taken to the legal field," Bambang  told reporters, according to Tempo, an Indonesian news website.
As for President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, he said he had decided not to sign the updated law, allowing it instead to go into effect automatically, as he cited potential public unrest over the controversial articles.
"I understand and I know that ... the law will remain valid even without my signature. Therefore, to solve the issue, the public is welcome to file a judicial review with the Constitutional Court," Jokowi said Thursday on his Twitter feed.

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Constitutional Court Justice Suhartoyo (second from left) leads the hearing in Jakarta on the validity of the so-called MD3 law, March 21, 2018. [Arie Firdaus/BenarNews}

 
Backed by Jokowi's party
Among the eight political parties that supported the amendments was the Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), Jokowi's party. For months, party members had been calling for MD3 to be passed. The United Development Party and the National Democratic Party protested the legislation, but they were outvoted.
Opponents of the law said it would defang agencies such as the KPK by requiring investigators and law-enforcement agencies to first consult the House Ethics Committee before any legislator can be legally pursued.
Critics said the revised law could criminalize criticism of the endemic corruption in Indonesia, where at least eight lawmakers have been arrested for corruption in recent years, including Setya. He has faced allegations of corruption in the past but has never been convicted.
Setya was accused of taking part in a conspiracy of dozens of officials who used the project called e-KTP to embezzle more than $170 million of state funds. He denied the allegations that became public last year.


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BENARNEWS- High school student Riko Ayomi was already dying when police brought him home in Sorong, a city on the western tip of West Papua province, an eyewitness said.
His life was soon added to the roster of what local people view as unexplained and unpunished deaths of indigenous Papuans in the remote region, and which authorities often pin on traffic accidents or alcohol abuse.
Police said they took Riko into custody after a mob beat him following an alleged theft, according to reports. About 24 hours later, before dawn on March 13, police officers brought the 17-year-old home, according to a person present at the time, who asked not to be named.
"Riko was dying. He could not stand, could not talk, parts of his body were bruised, like his neck and his chest. He had blood coming out of his mouth. His jaw was broken, and his body was covered with scrapes. Riko died around 5 a.m.," the eyewitness said.
West Papua police spokesman Hary Supriyono said Riko was unconscious the whole time he was in police custody. When officers took him to the hospital, they were told Riko was drunk, he added.
Results of an autopsy conducted by police doctors have not been released, according to the Associated Press, which said police also released a photo of the dead teenager with a bottle of alcohol next to his body.
Police also cited a long-running dispute between two tribal groups in the area as a factor in the alleged mob beating.
But local people had little expectation of clear answers or justice in such cases, according to Gustaf Kawer, a prominent Papuan human rights lawyer.
"The government of Indonesia has failed to implement an effective legal process to punish the perpetrators of such killings," he told BenarNews on Wednesday.
'What kind of justice is that?'
Gustaf cited a shooting in August 2017 in the Pomako Port in Mimika regency that left one fisherman dead and others injured. Earlier this week, a military court sentenced a soldier, Yusuf Salasar, to eight months in jail in connection with the shooting.
"The sentence and the verdict are very far from a sense of justice. The maximum sentence is eight years. But prosecutors only asked for one year and three months," Gustaf Kawer said.
In addition, the trial was held hundreds of kilometers from where the shooting took place, making it impossible for relatives and witnesses to attend, he said.
Another case was a police shooting at a protest on Aug. 1, 2017 against a company constructing a bridge in remote and mountainous Deiyai regency.
The shooting killed a civilian, Yulius Pigai, and injured at least seven others, according to a Human Rights Watch statement at the time.
"The perpetrators were sentenced to apologize and were transferred. What kind of justice is that? The only punishment for taking a life is an apology?" said John Gobay, a member of the provincial House of Representatives.
A police ethics panel probe into the shooting ruled four police officers were guilty of "improper conduct" but did not need to face criminal prosecution, only demotions and public apologies, a Human Rights Watch statement said.
Foreign media access is restricted in Papua and West Papua, Indonesia's two easternmost provinces, which make up about one-fifth of Indonesia's land mass.
The region is one of Indonesia's poorest, with low literacy rates and high rates of infant and maternal mortality. Migrants from other parts of Indonesia make up about half the population and dominate commercial activity, according to reports.
The region has been home to a low-level armed separatist movement, the Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM), for decades. The OPM and Indonesian security forces are both guilty of human rights abuses, rights groups say.
Christmas pledge
Frits Ramandey, the representative of the National Commission on Human Rights in Papua, said security forces use excessive force against the local population because protests and resistance are often branded as acts of treason.
"Government security measures to maintain order in Papua often lead to various forms of violence," he told BenarNews.
President Joko Widodo has not lived up to his pledge to Papuans in December 2014 to resolve such incidents and prevent them from happening again, he added.
"I empathize with the families of victims of violence," Jokowi said during Christmas celebrations in a stadium in Jayapura, the capital of Papua, on Dec. 27 of that year.
"I want this case to be resolved as soon as possible so as not to happen again in the future. We want the land of Papua to be a peaceful land," he said.
He was referring to the fatal shooting of five protesters by security forces in Paniai regency on Dec. 8, 2014. The shooting occurred after about 800 people gathered outside a military and police compound to demand an explanation for the alleged beating by soldiers of a 12-year-old boy the night, Human Rights Watch said.
"Despite three separate official investigations into the shootings, bolstered by Jokowi's December 2014 pledge to thoroughly investigate and punish security forces implicated in those deaths, there has been zero accountability," it said in an August 2017 statement.


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BENARNEWS- Former Indonesian House Speaker Setya Novanto flashed a smile Thursday while shaking hands with prosecutors who want him to spend 16 years in prison and pay a 1 billion rupiah fine for his alleged role in one of the country's largest graft scandals.
The prosecutors asked the court in Jakarta for the prison sentence and the fine totaling U.S. $72,679 and demanded he repay $7.4 million (101 billion rupiah) that he is accused of having embezzled from a 2009 government project to produce national biometric identity cards (e-ID cards).
"He tried to comply with the process, even though as a normal person, he was a bit shocked," lawyer Firman Wijaya, said of his client's response to the prosecution's demands.
Setya's demeanor was far different from his court appearance at the start of his trial in December 2017, when he said he suffered from diarrhea and claimed to be unable to listen to the judges.
During Thursday's 4½-hour hearing, prosecutors demanded that the judges reject Setya's request to serve as a justice collaborator.
Prosecutor Abdul Basir, who read out the demands, said Setya would not qualify even though he disclosed that two politicians from the ruling Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) – Puan Maharani and Pramono Anung – also allegedly accepted money from the e-ID card project.
Both politicians, who serve as senior ministers in President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's cabinet, denied Setya's allegations that they each received $500,000 (6.87 billion rupiah).
"The law stipulates that a justice collaborator has to meet several requirements, namely providing significant testimony and disclosing names of more prominent people involved the case," Basir said. "Based on those parameters, the defendant doesn't qualify as a justice collaborator."
Firman said he was disappointed the court upheld the prosecution's demand.
"Throughout the demand hearing, we didn't hear any significant reason why the request to be a justice collaborator should be denied," he said.
The lawyer added he would continue to request that Setya be granted the status when he presented a plea to the court during the next session on April 13. It will state his client is willing to disclose more about the case.
"We will prepare the plea. Setya and the legal team will read it out," he said.

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Setya Novanto's wife, Deisti Astriani Tagor (second from right), attends her husband's court hearing in Jakarta, March 29, 2018. (Arie Firdaus/BenarNews)

 
Case against Setya
Prosecutors said evidence showed that Setya had violated the country's anti-graft law by intervening in the e-ID project through a series of meetings. They alleged that he met with two officials from the Home Affairs Ministry, Irman and Sugiharto (who both go by one name), and an entrepreneur, Andi Narogong, who were sentenced last year for their roles in the scheme.
"The defendant even reminded Irman to deny any connection with him if the KPK questioned him," the prosecutor said.
Irman and Sugiharto were sentenced in July 2017 to seven and five years in prison, respectively, and Andi was sentenced to eight years in December 2017 for their involvement in the graft case.
"Based on the aforementioned facts, the defendant is guilty of having violated his authority as a legislator, whose role was to oversee the project, into committing crimes," the prosecutor added.
A politician from the Hanura Party, Miryam Haryani, was sentenced to five years for committing perjury in the case.
Setya has twice been forced to resign as speaker of Indonesia's House of Representatives (DPR) over corruption-related allegations, including over the electronic ID scandal.
In December 2015, he stepped down as speaker after the head of Freeport McMoran in Indonesia, Maroef Sjamsoeddin, told a parliamentary ethics panel that he had secretly recorded a meeting during which Setya had allegedly asked for a 20 percent-stake in the mining company.
Setya denied the allegation. Indonesia's attorney general later dropped an investigation and the Constitutional Court ruled in his favor. He was reappointed as House speaker last year


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian police shot dead two suspected drug dealers during separate incidents on Sumatra island, authorities said Friday.
The shootings brought to five the number of drug-related suspects killed since the appointment of Indonesia's anti-drug czar early this month. Last year, Amnesty International's Indonesian chapter warned that the government of the sprawling archipelago with almost six million drug users might be mimicking the Philippines' bloody war on drugs.
On Thursday, police in Aceh province arrested a 33-year-old man on suspicion that he was dealing methamphetamine. The suspect was arrested with two others, but authorities shot him as he tried to flee, Amanto, the drug eradication chief in the province for the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), told BenarNews.
Officers gunned down the suspect after firing "warning shots" into the air during a foot chase, according to Amanto, who uses one name.
Hours earlier, police shot dead another suspected drug dealer after he allegedly snatched a gun from an officer in Labuhan Batu, a regency in North Sumatra.
Police seized 13 kilos (28.6 lbs) and 20,000 ecstasy pills from the suspect, Marhaban Ali, according to Frido Sitomorang, police chief of Labuhan Batu.
"The suspect took our personnel's gun, so we had to disable him," Frido told BenarNews. He did not elaborate.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, has long been used as a key transit country by transnational organized crime groups for trafficking of heroin and cocaine, according to a January 2017 report from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Most meth found on the Indonesian market still comes from abroad, but Aceh, a conservative Muslim province at the northwestern tip of Sumatra where sharia law is enforced, has been cultivating marijuana during the past few years, the U.N. report said.
In early March, Indonesia's new anti-drug czar pledged to carry on with the programs and policies of his predecessor, including gunning down narcotics suspects who violently resisted arrest.
"If they resist and they have a weapon, yes, there is no choice [other than shooting the drug dealers]," Inspector General Heru Winarko, the new chief of the anti-narcotics agency BNN, told reporters in Jakarta during his first day in office.
President Joko Widodo, during an event in East Jakarta last year, also instructed officers to shoot drug dealers.
"If they fight and are dangerous, do not tolerate them. We have to be strict," the president said.
6 million addicts
Last November, citing police data, BNN spokesman Sulistiandriatmoko told reporters there were almost six million drug users out of Indonesia's total population of 261 million.
In 2017, BNN shot dead 79 alleged drug dealers, arrested 58,365 suspects and seized 4.7 tons of meth, 151 tons of marijuana and 2.9 million ecstasy pills, authorities said.
National Chief of Police Tito Karnavian had instructed law-enforcement officials in July 2017 to shoot drug dealers.
"I have instructed a firm action, shoot them if necessary if they resist arrest," he said.
Amnesty International researcher Bramantya Basuki said the number of shooting victims was higher than the numbers released by BNN.
In 2016, Bramantya said, 18 people were shot dead. The number spiked to 99 in 2017, he said.
"We have not seen any decrease in shootings this year," he said. "Because at the end of February there were 13 people who were shot dead."
In August 2017, Amnesty International Indonesia warned that Jakarta might be trying to copy the brutal anti-drug campaign waged by law enforcement in the Philippines, since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in mid-2016.
Since he became president and as of February, at least 4,043 people have died in Philippine police operations, according to a tally by BenarNews of governmental figures. Human rights groups have blamed thousands of other unaccounted deaths on pro-government vigilantes.
"The Indonesian government has the responsibility to respond to the high number of drug use in this country, but shooting people is not the solution," Usman Hamid, director of Amnesty International Indonesia, said in a statement issued in August.
"That action will not solve the problem of long-term drug use," he said.


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BENARNEWS- Six Indonesian sailors reunited with their families on Monday after six months of captivity by a militant group in Benghazi, Libya, officials said.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said efforts to free the sailors faced several delays because of security and political uncertainty in Benghazi, a rebel-held area in Libya.
Extensive negotiations led to the Maltese-flagged fishing ship Salvatur VI crew being released on March 27, Retno said during a handover ceremony at the ministry in Jakarta.
"No ransom paid. The hostages did not receive threats. They were treated well. We even communicated with the hostage-taker group," she said.
Staff from the Indonesian Embassy in Tripoli, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the State Intelligence Agency retrieved the sailors from Benghazi Port and brought them back to Jakarta last weekend, Indonesian officials said.
Captured while fishing
One of the freed sailors, Ronny William, said the crew was sailing from Malta to the Mediterranean Sea to fish when Benghazi-based militants captured them about 23 miles off the Libyan coastal city on Sept. 23, 2017.
"There were only seven people (on board), including the Italian captain. He was only detained for about seven days before he was freed to go home, he was already ill. But they held us for a long time," William told BenarNews.
The other sailors were identified as Joko Riadi, Hariyanto, Waskita Idi Patria, Saefudin and Mohamad Abudi.
The militants seized all of the crew's belongings, including mobile phones and an undetermined amount of cash, said Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, an Indonesian foreign ministry official. The government learned about the incident five days later after the ship owner informed the Indonesian Embassy in Rome, Lalu said.
Ronny's wife, Embun Diarsih, told BenarNews that she was accustomed to communicating only once a week with her husband, who has spent 35 years as a sailor. When Ronny did not contact her for two weeks, she learned about his capture from fellow sailors who work on another fishing boat in Europe.
"After three months, finally there was a contact again," Embun said. "I had been waiting because I know the process is difficult in a conflict area."
Lalu said that by the end of December 2017 the militants finally agreed to the embassy's request to allow the sailors access to communication devices.
"The access made it easier for the government to get a proof of life and monitor the condition of the Indonesian citizens," Lalu said.
Meanwhile, Ronny said he and his crewmates survived by eating anchovies they caught around the ship.
"We sold some of the anchovies through a militant who happened to be good to us. The money from the sale we used to buy rice and food," Ronny said, referring to one of the militants guarding them.
While in captivity, Ronny said he witnessed a battle between militants who controlled Benghazi and others aligned with the Islamic State.
"Even a bomb landed near the ship where we were taken hostage," he said.


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BENARNEWS- A daughter of Indonesia's first president, Soekarno, apologized Wednesday for reading a poem last week that was deemed blasphemous by Muslim groups, which reported her to police.
Sukmawati Soekarnoputri read her poem "Ibu Indonesia" (Mother Indonesia) on Thursday as part of the 2018 Indonesian Fashion Week during a celebration marking the 29-year career of Anne Avantie, famous for her traditional blouse designs.
"From the bottom of my heart, I apologize to Indonesian Muslims, especially to those who feel offended and objected to the poem 'Mother Indonesia'," Sukmawati said while tearing up during a news conference in Jakarta.
Her poem read: "I don't know sharia (Islamic law), but I know the Konde (traditional bun) of Mother Indonesia is very beautiful, more beautiful than your niqab (a full face veil worn by some Muslim women). I don't know sharia, but I know Mother Indonesia's ballad, it's so very elegant. More melodious than your azan (Islamic call to prayer)."
Middle Eastern-style Muslim garb has become much more common in Indonesia in recent years, and the poem expresses a nationalistic wistfulness for traditional Indonesian styles.
Despite her apology, Muslim groups announced plans to hold a mass protest "Defend Islam Action" on Friday at the National Police headquarters. In addition, an online petition at change.org demanding action against her for blasphemy received thousands of signatures.
Muslim groups held similar themed protests against former Jakarta Gov. Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, a Christian, in 2016 and 2017 after an edited video made it appear like he said that the Quran deceived people. Ahok was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to two years in prison.
Under Indonesia's criminal code, blasphemy is punishable by up to five years in prison.
No intention of insulting Islam
Sukmawati said the poem represented her personal view as an artist.
"The fashion show's theme was 'Cultural Identity.' The poem was in accordance with the theme," Sukmawati said.
The younger sister of Megawati Soekarnoputri, leader of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's ruling party, Sukmawati said she had no intention of insulting Islam.
"I am a Muslim who is grateful and proud of my Islamic identity, a daughter of the founding father, Bung Karno, who was well-known as a Muhammadiyah figure and received an honor from Nahdlatul Ulama," she said referring to the two biggest Muslim organizations in Indonesia.

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Dedi Suhardadi, who represents Muslim group Persaudaraan Alumni 212, talks to reporters after filing a criminal complaint in Jakarta, April 4, 2018. [Rina Chadijah/BenarNews]

 
Criminal reports filed
Persaudaraan Alumni (PA) 212, an umbrella group of Islamic hardline organizations behind the mass protests against Ahok, reported Sukmawati to police on Wednesday.
"I personally have no problem. The problem is not that I have been insulted, but my religion, Islam," PA representative Dedi Suhardadi said.
On Tuesday, lawyer Denny Andrian Kusdayat filed a similar blasphemy complaint with Jakarta Metro Police.
"What she has conveyed through her poem is worse than Ahok. And this really offends Muslims," he told BenarNews.
Following Sukmawati's apology, Denny said he had not withdrawn his police complaint.
"I will consult with ulemas. After that I will make my decision," he said.
Politician Amron Asyhari and the East Java chapter of Indonesia's largest Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, filed complaints against Sukmawati.
Police spokesman Inspector Gen. Setyo Wasisto said law-enforcement agencies will respond to the complaints.
"Our responsibility is to carry out an investigation. We have to first gather evidence and then follow up," Setyo told reports at police national headquarters.
Rights group responds
Hendardi, a representative of the Jakarta-based human rights group Setara Institute, said the poem had nothing to do with blasphemy. He called it an artistic expression that had a sufficient degree of factual truth.
"On the complaint that has been submitted, let the police process proceed without pressure from political motives," he said in a written statement, adding the issue could spawn conflict in the coming elections.


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BENARNEWS- An Indonesian fishing boat rescued five Rohingya off western Aceh province after five others starved to death and their bodies were tossed overboard when they were stranded at sea for almost three weeks, officials said Friday.
The survivors, identified as two men, a woman, a teenage girl and an 8-year-old boy, were taken to Zubir Mahmud Hospital after the fishing boat crew brought them to shore, according to Herman, the secretary of the Search and Rescue Team of East Aceh regency.
"Their conditions when they arrived on the land was weak, even though they had been fed by the fishermen after they were found," Herman, who uses one name, told BenarNews.
H.B. Aris Santo, commander of the Navy Force at Aceh's Kuala Idi, said the five were spotted Monday night by the fishermen about 176 miles from the Aceh shoreline.
Despite the language barrier, the Rohingya told their rescuers they had been stranded for 20 days after leaving their village in Myanmar's Rakhine state.
"They said initially there were 10 in the boat, but five of them had died from lack of food and had been thrown into the sea," Aris said.
Officials said the Rohingya were lucky to survive.
"If we look at the boat they used, it was in very poor condition and was unfit to sail through the ocean because it was very small and no engine," said Razali Ali, a coordinator of Aceh traditional fishermen community.
Afrizal, an immigration official in Aceh, said immigration officers took the Rohingya Muslims from the hospital Friday afternoon.
"We have not questioned them yet. We have coordinated with UNHCR and IOM," he told BenarNews, referring to the United Nations refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration.
"Maybe tomorrow we'll start checking their identity documents after a translator from IOM comes."
Afrizal said the Rohingya described their journey to an IOM representative during a phone call.
"They left from Myanmar to sail to Malaysia," he said.
On Tuesday, Malaysian officials intercepted a boat carrying 56 people believed to be Rohingya off the island of Langkawi.
Malaysian officials said the boat with 36 adults and about 20 children sailed from Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, where about 700,000 Rohingya refugees have sheltered since August 2017 after fleeing Myanmar's Rakhine state to escape a brutal counterinsurgency campaign by security forces.
In 2015, about 1,000 stranded Rohingya were rescued by Acehnese fishermen. Most chose to flee to Malaysia to find jobs while the rest have been granted political asylum in other countries, according to the Indonesian government


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BENARNEWS- An Indonesian court sentenced a terrorist-turned-preacher to nine years in prison on Monday for inciting suicide attacks that killed three Jakarta police officers in May 2017.
Kiki Muhamad Iqbal, 38, was found guilty of organizing twin bombings at a bus station in East Jakarta that killed the officers along with two perpetrators and injured at least 11 people.
"We find the defendant guilty of mobilizing other parties to participate and sentence the defendant to nine years in prison," Chief Judge Purwanto told the courtroom at the North Jakarta District Court. Prosecutors had sought a 12-year sentence on a charge that could carry the death penalty.
The court ruled that Kiki directed the two suicide bombers, Ahmad Sukri and Ichwan Nurul Salam, to conduct the May 24, 2017, attack through his sermons at a mosque in West Java province. He preached about the Muslim privilege of "mati syahid" or "dying a martyr," telling them that their sins would be removed and they would be given 72 angels in heaven and freed from hell.
The prosecutor, in his indictment, said both Ahmad and Ichwan were present when Kiki delivered a sermon five days before the attacks.
"It's not fair," Kiki told reporters responding to the verdict.
Handcuffed and guarded by armed officers, he left the courtroom and got into a car that took him to prison.
Kiki's attorney, Kamsi, who only uses one name, said his client would decide whether to appeal. His client did not personally know the bombers, the lawyer steadfastly claimed.
"It just happened that Kiki was the person giving the sermon there," Kamsi said after the hearing.
Previous conviction
Monday's conviction was Kiki's second on terror-related charges.
In June 2011, he was sentenced to six years for his involvement in Bandung's "Cibiru Bomb" terror network that planned to bomb police mobile brigade headquarters and several embassies in Jakarta, according to police.
Officers claimed that the group's bombs were more powerful than the car bomb used in the first Bali bombing in 2002 that killed 202 people.
Kiki, who was released from Indonesia's main prison, Nusakambangan, in August 2015, connected with other terrorists while behind bars, according to prosecutors.
He began to interact with radical cleric Aman Abdurrahman, the head of Islamic State-affiliated Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) who was serving a nine-year sentence for funding terrorist training camps in Aceh province.
Aman is facing a possible death sentence for inciting others to commit terror attacks, including an attack claimed by Islamic State (IS) that killed eight people, including four perpetrators, in central Jakarta in January 2016.
Kiki also met with another top militant, Iwan Darmawan (alias Rois), who is on death row for his involvement in the 2004 Australian Embassy bombing in Jakarta, a prosecutor said.
"They were in one block," prosecutor Solehudin said.
"A week before Kiki's release, Aman gave a message to Kiki to continue the preaching that confirms the Daulah (Islamic caliphate)," Solehudin said.

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Defendants Wachihdun Triyono (left), and Muslih Afifi Afandi listen to verdicts at the North Jakarta Court, April 9, 2018. (Arie Firdaus/BenarNews)

 
 
Conspirators sentenced
The court also sentenced two followers of Kiki, Muslih Afifi Afandi and Wachidun Triyono.
Muslih, an emir or leader East Bandung's JAD, was sentenced to seven years and Wachidun, the head of JAD military wing under Muslih, was sentenced to 3½ years. Prosecutors had sought sentences of 12 to 15 years.
"Defendant Muslih knew that the two perpetrators of Kampung Melayu were present during a sermon by Kiki," judge Jootje Sampaleng said, referring to last year's attack at the bus station.
"However as the leader of the regional JAD, the defendant kept silent. So the elements of deliberately giving facility and hiding the information of terrorist crimes are met validly and convincingly."
Muslih responded "I object!"
Kiki was one of 172 suspected terrorists arrested in Indonesia last year, according to police officials.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia's main opposition party on Wednesday officially endorsed Prabowo Subianto for the 2019 presidential election, setting up a possible rematch of the 2014 race won by Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.
Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) announced the endorsement during its national coordination meeting in West Java attended by leaders of other political parties that could potentially support Prabowo's candidacy.
"As long as I get the trust from Gerindra, I will do it. With all my energy, with all my soul and body!" Prabowo said in accepting the endorsement.
Party secretary general Ahmad Muzani said Prabowo has strong support from party leaders for the April 17, 2019, election.
"They convey the aspirations of constituents who want Prabowo to run," Muzani said.
He dismissed concerns that Prabowo is not a strong candidate based on losing to Jokowi four years ago.
Jokowi, who defeated Prabowo by more than 6 percentage points in the popular vote, has received but has not officially accepted the endorsement of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
Potential support from other parties
Gerindra falls 39 seats short of meeting the requirement of filling at least 112 seats in the 560-seat DPR (House of Representatives). Other parties have signaled potential support for Prabowo's candidacy, including two Islam-based political parties, National Mandate Party (PAN), which has 49 seats; and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), which has 40 seats.
PAN's Chairman Zulkifli Hasan and Honorary Council Chairman Amien Rais, along with PKS President Sohibul Iman and Secretary General Mustafa Kamal, attended the meeting.
Jokowi's coalition represents 290 DPR seats through a combination of 109 from PDI-P, 91 from Golkar Party and dozens from the United Development Party, Nasdem Party and Hanura Party.
'Like an old movie,' analysts say
Some analysts questioned the nomination.
Pangi Syarwi Chaniago, executive director of the Jakarta-based Voxpol Center Research and Consulting, said Prabowo's candidacy can be a setback for Gerindra.
"Because we can say that people are tired already," he told BenarNews, adding he predicts a repeat of the 2014 election.
"Prabowo is like an old movie and it is not interesting to watch again," he said.
Yunarto Wijaya, a political analyst with the Jakarta-based Charta Politika, offered a similar opinion.
"Prabowo's electability is still below Jokowi's, which is around 65 percent to 70 percent," he said.
Prabowo, a retired general and a former son-in-law of former President Suharto, the late dictator who ruled 32 years, has faced alleged human rights violations during his military career.
A former Kopassus commander, Prabowo's forces were accused of killing civilians in Dili, the capital of East Timor, in 1983, according to Human Rights Watch. He also was accused of abducting a couple of pro-democracy student activists in 1998.
He has denied both allegations.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo visited his country's easternmost Papua province on Thursday, two months after a measles-and-malnutrition outbreak killed more than 70 children in the area that is home to one of the world's biggest gold mines.
Accompanied by first lady Iriana, Jokowi arrived at Agats port in Asmat on a military helicopter, becoming Indonesia's first leader to visit the impoverished regency.
During a meeting with local officials, Jokowi expressed his concerns about the threat of malnutrition among children.
"I urge the regent to prioritize the government's attention on malnutrition issues among children," Jokowi said, referring to Asmat Regent Elisa Kambu.
After news of the measles outbreak spread early this year, Widodo ordered the military and medical teams to bring supplies to remote areas of the regency.
In February, health officials said the crisis had been placed under control after paramedics vaccinated more than 17,000 children.
During his visit Thursday, Jokowi said all water reservoir projects for residents would be completed by the end of August.
Papua, a former Dutch colony that was absorbed into Indonesia in 1969 after a controversial referendum, is where the U.S.-based mining giant Freeport-McMoran operates the Grasberg gold and copper mining complex.
Foreign media access is restricted in Papua and West Papua, Indonesia's two easternmost provinces, which make up about one-fifth of Indonesia's land mass.
The region is one of Indonesia's poorest, with low literacy rates and high rates of infant and maternal mortality.
It was Jokowi's eighth trip to Papua since taking office in 2014. He was accompanied by his public housing and health ministers during the visit that included an inspection of a public housing complex under construction in Asmat.
Jokowi talked about nutrition with a number of local women and children and was seen riding an electric motorcycle with his wife.
Before arriving in Asmat, Jokowi also visited Jayapura, the provincial capital of Papua, where he checked the progress on the construction of a bridge and handed out land certificates to residents.
Human rights complaints
During the past decades, the Papua region has been the site of a low-level armed separatist movement, the Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM), against Jakarta's rule. The OPM and Indonesian security forces are both guilty of human rights abuses, according to rights groups.
Recent images of thin children with exposed ribs at ill-equipped hospitals has led to criticisms that the region's wealth is not being evenly shared with its ethnic population.
Jokowi's frequent Papua visits underscores his failure to fulfilling his pledge to resolve the human rights violations in the insurgency-hit eastern province, local human rights activists told BenarNews on Thursday.
"If Jokowi keeps neglecting the efforts to solve the cases, his commitment in developing Papua will face a great distrust by Papuans," said Frits Ramandey, head of Papua office of the National Commission of Human Rights.


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BENARNEWS- Seeking to dampen international criticism and protect children, officials in Indonesia's Aceh province have decided to move public canings indoors and regulate who can attend.
Henceforth, canings of people convicted of violating Islamic law will take place inside prisons and not in mosque courtyards, where they have been attended by thousands of people, many of whom filmed the spectacle.
Local officials signed off on the change in the provincial capital on Thursday despite protests by a legislator and a group of students who said public canings serve as a deterrent.
"We don't want implementation of this punishment to get in the way of our foreign relations, because of Islamophobia," Aceh Gov. Irwandi Yusuf told journalists, explaining why he issued the regulation. He said a limited number of spectators could still watch indoor canings.
"Children are not allowed inside. Visitors can't bring camera, or cell phones," he said.
"Can you image if children watch it and see the public cheering, clapping. It is not what Sharia law intends."
National and international human right activists have been critical of the Aceh canings, calling them human rights violations.
The first-ever public caning of a couple convicted of gay sex in Aceh in May 2017 in particular drew international media coverage and widespread condemnation. Islamic Sharia law is in force in Indonesia's westernmost province, and allows up to 100 strokes for gay sex or sodomy.
Irwandi said a video of those canings went viral on YouTube, causing potential long-term trauma for the men.
"They could go on to become public figures or even clerics and then someone would show them the video and remind them of how they used to be," he said.
Munawar A. Djalil, head of Aceh's Sharia law agency, said the regulation was signed to prevent children from watching.
"But in reality from 2005 until now, they watched the canings. We can imagine the psychological effect of such violence on children," Munawar said.
Protests
Seven students protested outside the building Thursday while officials signed an agreement on the venue of the canings.
Muharruddin, the chairman of Aceh's House of Representatives, called the governor's act undemocratic, saying changes to Sharia bylaws must be approved by the provincial assembly, not enacted by executive decree.
"In hierarchy, the qanun is positioned higher than a gubernatorial regulation. ...The technical procedure for whipping is already in the qanun," he told BenarNews, referring to the Islamic bylaws.
Members of the Indonesian Muslim Students Action Front said moving canings behind closed doors could lead to more frequent violations of the law.
"If it is conducted inside prison, it is the same as being closed [to the public]. Violations to Sharia law will be more rampant. It is already rampant," said protest coordinator Tuwanku Muhammad.
"We are against the regulation because caning in public places serves as a lesson for the public not to violate the Sharia law."
Tuwanku said the turnout for the protest was small because he and the others only learned about the signing the night before.
"We will stage a rally with more participants from other Islamic mass organizations," he said.
Irwandi shrugged off the objections.
"If they disagree, that's all right. It is their right."


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BENARNEWS- President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo is expected to face off in a rematch against former Gen. Prabowo Subianto when Indonesians go to the polls in one year – April 17, 2019.
Still, pundits warn that much can happen in the next few months as parties and coalitions face an August deadline to nominate presidential candidates and their vice presidential running mates, given the pragmatic nature of political parties in the country.
Before the race kicks off officially, Jokowi appears to be running strong, leading in polls by 30 percent to 40 percent against his rival. Other potential presidential candidates including former Armed Forces chief Gatot Nurmantyo, Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan and Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono, the son of former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, show less support in the polling.
"Until August, there will be plenty of political compromises and that's the dynamic of Indonesian politics," Emrus Sihombing, a political lecturer at Pelita Harapan University's postgraduate program, told BenarNews. "It's about trying to find the balance in power sharing, which party gets what power. After all, Indonesian politics is more pragmatic than ideological."
Jokowi's ruling coalition, led by Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), stepped out early in declaring support for the incumbent. Other parties in the coalition are Golkar, Islam-based United Development (PPP), Nasdem, Hanura and two new political parties, Indonesia Solidarity and Perindo.
"But the coalition is still not solid without a political contract," Voxpol Center political analyst Pangi Syarwi Chaniago told BenarNews.
Chaniago said coalition members could back out if they find there was little or nothing to gain from the coalition. The top prize for coalition members would be having Jokowi select his running mate from their party.
Jokowi's PDI-P holds 109 seats, falling short of the 112 needed to field a candidate in the presidential race and forcing the party to form a coalition with other parties. The coalition represents 290 seats – more than half of the 560-seat House of Representatives (DPR).
Meanwhile, Prabowo's Gerindra party falls 39 seats short of meeting the requirement and expects support from two Islam-based political parties, National Mandate Party (PAN), which has 49 seats; and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) with 40 seats.
Pundits said PKS would be Gerindra's most likely coalition partner.
"But I think even PKS could withdraw from the coalition should they find that they have nothing to gain from it," said Rico Marbun, the executive director of pollster Media Survei Nasional (Median).
PKS has stated it wants Prabowo to pick one of its best nine candidates as his running mate before committing to a coalition with Gerindra. PKS President Sohibul Iman is among the nine candidates, along with West Java Gov. Ahmad Heryawan, former PKS President Anis Matta and senior member Mardani Ali Sera.
"It makes sense that we ask (Gerindra) to choose our candidates. Every party has its own rights," Ali Sera told BenarNews, adding it likely would withdraw its support if Prabowo did not select a PKS running mate.
Gerindra's secretary general, Ahmad Muzani, said his party could look for another coalition partner as it considers vice presidential candidates and PKS members.
"Our focus now is to grasp aspiration from the grassroots and find out who they prefer as vice presidential candidate," he said.
Prabowo, a retired army special forces general and former son-in-law of the late Indonesian dictator Suharto, might have to look elsewhere for a vice presidential candidate as pollsters said the PKS candidates have little support from the public. The most popular vice presidential candidates are mainly non-party candidates, including Baswedan and Nurmantyo.
Other parties that have not joined or established coalitions include National Mandate Party (PAN) with 49 seats, Democratic Party with 49 seats and National Awakening Party (PKB) with 47 seats.
Incumbent popular
Jokowi, who is expected to seek a second term but has not officially accepted his coalition's nomination nor named a vice presidential candidate, remains the most popular presidential candidate with electability ranges from 35 percent to 57 percent, while Prabowo's numbers range from 20 percent to 42 percent.
The official presidential campaign will begin Oct. 13 and end April 13, 2019, four days before 196.5 million eligible voters will be able to go to the polls.
"Once the parties register their presidential and vice-presidential candidates, political machines such as volunteers or those outside the official campaign team will launch their informal campaign, since the official one cannot start until October," Sihombing said.
Local polling, known as Pilkada, are to be held on June 27 to elect 17 governors, 39 mayors and 115 regents for Indonesia's four most populous provinces – West Java, East Java, Central Java and North Sumatra.
Polarization
The increased political polarization and use of religion as a tool to sway voters came to light in 2017 when Jakarta Gov.  Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, a Chinese Christian, lost to Baswedan, who received backing from Muslim groups that raised protests against Ahok over blasphemy claims.
Amien Rais, the chairman of PAN's advisory board, was reported to police on Sunday by Cyber Indonesia over a speech he gave at a Jakarta mosque two days earlier.
"Now we have to mobilize all the strength of this nation to come together and strengthen this party, not just PAN, PKS, Gerindra, but the groups that defend the religion of Allah, that is hezbollah. To fight against who? To fight against the forces of Satan," he said at the Baiturrahim Mosque in South Jakarta as quoted by CNN Indonesia.
"Those who are anti-God, they automatically join the big party, that is the party of Satan," he said. "Know that the party of demons must be inhabited by the destroyers, those that would destroy the world and the afterlife."


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian police on Tuesday agreed to release a luxury yacht at the center of an international money laundering probe related to the Malaysian stated fund 1MDB, after a Jakarta judge ruled that its seizure was "invalid and legally baseless."
At a pretrial hearing Tuesday, South Jakarta District Court judge Ratmoho ruled in favor of Equanimity (Cayman) Ltd, which owns the $250-million vessel, and has been challenging its seizure in Indonesian and U.S. courts.
"We declare the confiscation by police as invalid and legally baseless," Ratmoho said during the hearing.
On Feb. 27, Indonesian police and FBI agents boarded the Cayman Islands-flagged Equanimity while it was moored in Benoa Bay, off southern Bali, seizing documents and questioning its 34-member crew, in response to request from investigators in the United States.
Rudy Heriyanto, a director at the Criminal Investigation Department of the Indonesian police, said local authorities were assisting the FBI when the yacht was impounded, but vowed to follow the court's ruling.
"We will obey the orders of the South Jakarta Court and immediately return the cruise ship to its owner," he told reporters late Tuesday.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) alleges that Malaysian financier Jho Low, whose full name is Low Taek Jho, bought the luxury vessel with money stolen from the Malaysian state fund known as 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
In August 2017, DOJ announced it was pursuing criminal action against those involved in the misappropriations and fraudulent diversion of funds from 1MDB. U.S. federal prosecutors have not charged anyone criminally in connection with the alleged embezzlement.
Formed in 2009 ostensibly to pursue development projects that would benefit Malaysian citizens, 1MDB is at the center of money-laundering investigations in at least six countries, including Switzerland and Singapore.
In the hearing Tuesday, judge Ratmoho ruled that the seizure of the Equanimity was illegal and that Indonesian police had overstepped their authority after receiving a letter from the FBI asking to conduct a joint operation.
"Canceling the police confiscation letter dated Feb. 26, 2018. Requiring the petitioner to return the cruise ship to the applicant," Ratmoho said.
Andi Simangungsong, a lawyer for the Equanimity Cayman Ltd, welcomed the ruling.
"With this verdict, what is important to us is that this yacht, with the cancellation of its seizure ... be returned to its owner," he said, adding that the vessel would soon depart Indonesian waters.
"After police investigators release the vessel, we will surrender it completely to our client," he said.
The 1MDB case, according to the DOJ, is the largest single action in the history of Washington's so-called kleptocracy initiative, which seeks to stem international corruption by reclaiming the money allegedly stolen from public coffers.
Jho Low has never held a formal position at the state fund but he "nevertheless exercised significant control over 1MDB" during the acquisition of the Equanimity, according to a DOJ lawsuit.
Court documents allege that more than $730 million of 1MDB money was ultimately routed to the personal bank account of "Malaysian Official 1," a thinly veiled reference to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Najib, who founded 1MDB and is running for another term of office, has denied any wrongdoing, describing the allegations of misappropriation as "an unnecessary distraction for the country."
Federal prosecutors believe that the money used to acquire the yacht was part of the $1.7 billion in real-estate and other assets that the DOJ was trying to recover from a total of more than $4 billion allegedly siphoned off from 1MDB.


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BENARNEWS- The Pentagon said it could not confirm social media reports of the death of an Indonesian Islamic State (IS) militant fighting in Syria but acknowledged that U.S.-led coalition fighter jets had bombed the area where he was allegedly killed this week.
The elusive Bahrumsyah, who uses the nom-de-guerre Abu Muhammad al-Indonesi, allegedly leads an Indonesian-Malaysian unit of the IS known as Katibah Nusantara, which aims to establish a so-called caliphate in Southeast Asia.
This is not the first time Bahrumsyah has been reported killed. A year ago, some news reports said he died in a suicide mission in Syria but experts clarified that he was not the one who died in the blast.
This week, his sympathizers sent messages on Telegram, a social-media channel often used by IS supporters, eulogizing Bahrumsyah and claiming that he was "confirmed a martyr having been exposed to the bombardment of a B-1 Lancer fighter jet in the Hajin, Syria area."
"We did conduct airstrikes in the reported general area on the day Bahrumsyah was allegedly killed, but I do not have confirmation of his death," Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon told BenarNews.
"The Coalition remains committed to achieving the lasting defeat of ISIS and its affiliates," he said on Thursday, using the other name for IS. "We must not relent on ISIS or permit these terrorists to recover from their battlefield losses."
On Friday, the Coalition Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) also confirmed in an email to BenarNews that bombings took place in the area where Bahrumsyah was allegedly killed.
"On April 17 in Syria, Coalition forces conducted several strikes near Abu Kamal, but we cannot confirm any further info on these strikes," the public affairs office of Operation Inherent Resolve said.
In a news release issued Thursday, CJTF-OIR also said "the Iraqi air force conducted an air strike near Hajin, Syria, against Daesh terrorists operating near the Iraq-Syria border on April 19," using the other name for IS.
"The strike was approved by the Iraqi Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Dr. Haider Al Abadi," the news release said, adding that the operation "was planned and executed by the Iraqi Joint Operations Command with intelligence support from the Coalition."

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Bahrumsyah, an Indonesian known by the nom-de-guerre Abu Muhammad al-Indonesi, is pictured in a screenshot taken from an online IS propaganda video, Jan. 27, 2016. [BenarNews]

 
The United States has led the coalition against IS since 2014 and U.S. troops have served as advisers on the ground with Iraqi government forces and with Kurdish and Arab groups in Syria.
Officials of Indonesia's National Agency for Counter-Terrorism (BNPT) told BenarNews they did not receive any reports on Bahrumsyah's death. Known pro-IS media have also been silent about Bahrumsyah's purported killing.
Indonesian authorities took notice of Bahrumsyah in 2014 when he appeared in a YouTube video calling on Muslim youths in Indonesia and Malaysia to join IS. The release of that video led to a government ban on IS.
Botched suicide attack denied
On March 14 last year, Singapore daily The Straits Times quoted pro-IS media as saying that Bahrumsyah died while carrying out a botched suicide attack in Syria.
But six days later, IS news outlet Amaq News Agency described the report as "false," and Jakarta-based security analyst Sidney Jones later said the man who was killed "wasn't even from Indonesia, he was from Uzbekistan."
Bahrumsyah, whose aliases also include Bachrumsyah Mennor Usman, and Abu Ibrahim al Indonesi, was classified last year by the United States as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia's former House speaker must spend 15 years in prison and pay back U.S. $7.3 million (102 billion rupiah) for his role in taking kickbacks during the development of a national biometric identity card program (e-ID cards), a Jakarta court ruled Tuesday.
Setya Novanto received the kickbacks between 2011 and 2012. The court ruled he was a major player in the embezzlement scandal that saw about $170 million (2.3 trillion rupiah) disappear from the $440 million (6.1 trillion rupiah) project to issue the new ID cards.
"Declaring defendant Setya Novanto has convincingly been proven guilty, according to the law, of conspiring to commit corruption," ruled Yanto, the head of a panel of five judges at the Court for Corruption Crimes in Jakarta. "Sentenced to 15 years in prison."
"The defendant's act has violated the government's intense efforts in combatting corruption. Besides, corruption is an extraordinary crime," added Yanto, who like many Indonesians uses only one name.
Setya was also fined 500 million rupiah ($36,000). Prosecutors had asked that the former politician be sentenced to 16 years and his fine be double what the court ordered.
"If the fine is not paid, it is  to be replaced with an additional three months confinement," Yanto ruled.
Yanto allowed Setya to consult with his lawyers about appealing the verdict.
"We will think about it, your honor," Setya responded after the consultation.
The judge gave Setya a week to respond.
"We could directly file an appeal, but it would be wise if he talks to his family first," lawyer Firman Widjaya said, adding the legal team intended to challenge parts of the verdict.
For example, the lawyers would like to challenge the court's ruling against Setya serving as a justice collaborator by disclosing details about other suspects in the corruption scandal.
In March, prosecutors questioned the former house speaker's request, telling the court he would not qualify because the law stipulated that collaborators must provide significant testimony and disclose names of more prominent people involved the case.
Setya has twice been forced to resign as house speaker over corruption-related allegations.
He stepped down in December 2015 after the leader of mining company Freeport McMoran in Indonesia told a parliamentary ethics panel that he had secretly recorded a meeting where Setya asked for a 20 percent stake in the company. Setya denied the allegation, the attorney general later dropped an investigation and the Constitutional Court ruled in his favor.
He was reappointed as speaker in 2016 but resigned after the charges in the e-ID case were filed against him.
Trial details
Setya disappeared for a day in November 2017 as investigators issued a warrant for his arrest. He turned up in a hospital emergency room after claiming he was injured in a car accident.
In December, during his first court appearance on the charges, Setya claimed to be suffering from diarrhea and was unable to listen to the judges. By the end of March, he smiled and shook hands with prosecutors as he arrived for another hearing.
Trying the case against Setya, prosecutors said evidence showed he had violated the country's anti-graft law by intervening in the e-ID project through a series of meetings.
They said he met with two officials from the Home Affairs Ministry, Irman and Sugiharto (who, like the judge, both go by one name), and an entrepreneur, Andi Narogong. All three were sentenced last year for their involvement in the scheme.
In addition, a Hanura Party politician was sentenced to five years for committing perjury.
Responses
The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) applauded the verdict, while another anti-corruption group would have preferred a longer prison sentence.
"We appreciate the decision of the judges for granting KPK demands for [Novanto] to pay the restitution and the revocation of his political rights, although the sentence is still one year less," KPK Deputy Chairman Laode M. Syarif said in a written statement received by BenarNews.
Meanwhile, Lola Ester, a researcher with the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), said Setya should have received a life sentence and urged the KPK to investigate other politicians whose names were revealed during the trial.
"We cannot just stop at Novanto. All involved should be punished," she said.


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BENARNEWS- Police in Indonesia's East Kalimantan province on Tuesday announced they had seized a Panama-flagged ship allegedly linked to an oil spill in Balikpapan Bay that led to a massive fire and five deaths on March 31.
The Ever Judger, which was carrying coal, was anchoring off Balikpapan city when it damaged an underwater pipeline operated by Indonesian state-owned oil and natural gas corporation Pertamina, according to local authorities.
"We decided to seize the ship for a thorough investigation of the oil spill that harmed Balikpapan Bay for 21 days," East Kalimantan Police investigation chief Yustan Alpiani told reporters on Tuesday.
In addition, police requested that the immigration office detain the ship's captain and 20 crewmen – all Chinese nationals.
"Evidence found during our investigation showed that the pipeline was damaged because of the ship's anchor," Utsan said, adding that the evidence included three pieces of the pipe.
"We have secured the evidence at Pertamina's Jeti Port of Balikpapan. It will reconstructed by a team of Indonesia Police's forensic lab," Yustan said.
In a recent statement, Pertamina expressed appreciation for the police investigation.
"We have heard from the police and we're still waiting for them to officially announce the cause of the incident," Yudy Nugraha, Pertamina's Kalimantan regional communication manager, said.
The underwater pipeline is one of five contracted by Pertamina to supply its Balikpapan plant with 260,000 barrels of oil daily.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Environment insisted that Pertamina was responsible for the environmental damage in Balikpapan Bay.
"The Environment Law states that the producer of waste is responsible in the environmental recovery process," said Tri Bangun Laksono, chief of Kalimantan Ecoregional Development Control.
Pertamina, he said, could file a complaint against whomever was responsible for causing the spill. The spill covered more than 32,000 acres, according to officials.
"If the ship is later found guilty, Pertamina is advised to file a charge against it. But it's now Pertamina's responsibility," he said.

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A section of Pertamina's pipeline is removed from Balikpapan Bay, April 21, 2018. (Courtesy Pertamina)

 
Security
The East Kalimantan office of Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam) urged the government to improve security around the oil processing plant.
Jatam's Pradharma Rupang said the plant's security could face threats from foreigners, adding the coal ship should not take full blame for the spill.
"It's a foreign ship. It will obey the country's regulation when it enters the country. There was supposed to be assistance from Pertamina and the Indonesia Navy," he said. "But we didn't see any. There was no early warning system that could help avoid the incident."
Balikpapan Bay Care Forum activist Husein, who uses only one name, said oil could be found in the nearby waters of Balang Island, Tempadung, Pudak and Somber.
Environmental activists predicted the recovery could take six months.
"Oil pollution will harm the underwater life in Balikpapan Bay," he said.


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BENARNEWS- A Jakarta court sentenced eight Taiwanese to death Thursday on charges of trying to smuggle in about 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) of crystal methamphetamine last year, the latest foreigners to face a prospective firing squad over Indonesia's strict anti-narcotics laws.
The eight defendants, all men, were considering whether to appeal the verdict handed down at the South Jakarta Court, their lawyer said. They were found guilty of conspiring to bring in a shipment valued at U.S. $144 million (2 trillion rupiah), officials said.
"The defendants knew what they brought was shabu[methamphetamine] and were aware that they could face severe punishment, but were still doing it," Chief Judge Effendi Mukhtar said in reading the verdict.
"So the element of evil conspiracy against the law in the form of facilitating the distribution of drugs is fulfilled validly," he added.
The stash was brought in aboard a Sierra Leone-flagged ship, the "Wanderlust," when it docked at the port of Anyer, near Jakarta, in July 2017, authorities said.
Three of the defendants – Liao Guan Yu (22), Chen Wei Cyuan (22), and Hsu Yung Li (37) – were arrested during a raid by police at a hotel in Anyer on July 13, 2017.
The three men and another Taiwanese national, Lin Ming Hui, were allegedly picking up the meth, packed in 51 sacks, when the raid occurred. Police shot and killed Lin Ming Hui.
The five other defendants – Juang Jin Sheng (42), Sun Kuo Tai (37), Sun Chih Feng (40), Kuo Chun Yuan (44), and Tsai Chih Hung (56) – were arrested aboard the "Wanderlust" three days later in Batam, Sumatra province as it was sailing to Taiwan, police said.
The decision to send the eight men to death row was weighted on consideration that the defendants were involved in an international crime syndicate whose drug trafficking could "damage the young generation of Indonesia," Judge Effendi said.
After the verdict, their lawyer, Juan Hutabarat, said his clients would take some time to ponder whether to appeal it.
"What is certain is that we will include what have been put in the memorandum of defense. Later, we will re-enter [this] together with other considerations that we get from the judge's decision," Juan said.
Indonesian law stipulates that inmates on death row must exhaust all legal avenues, such as appeals and judicial reviews, before they can be executed.

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Three of the Taiwanese defendants – Liao Guan Yu, Chen Wei Cyuan, and Hsu Yung Li (left to right), are pictured at the South Jakarta Court, April 26, 2018. [Arie Firdaus/BenarNews]

 
'Be merciless': Jokowi
Thursday's death sentences were the first in Indonesia since a court in Sumatra province handed capital sentences to four Indonesians who were convicted of possessing 134 kg (295 pounds) of marijuana.
Three months earlier, a Pekanbaru District Court in Sumatra handed down the same verdict to three Indonesians who have been involved in drug trafficking, for the possession of five kg (11 pounds) of shabu and 1,599 ecstasy pills.
Global rights watchdog Amnesty International said at least 262 people were on death row in Indonesia last year for drug and other offenses, but the country did not carry out any executions in 2017. Still, 33 people were sentenced to death over drug charges that year.
Since President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo took office nearly four years ago, 18 drug convicts have been executed by Indonesia, including foreigners.
In April 2015, Jokowi's government caused an international furor when it put to death eight drug convicts, including seven foreigners. Two of them were Australian citizens Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, whose executions strained bilateral relations. Canberra condemned Jakarta's decision to go through with the deaths by firing squad and, at the time, recalled its ambassador to Indonesia in protest.
Jokowi has since hardened his stance on being tough on drug dealers as a way to combat his country's crisis with drug addiction.
Last year, echoing a hardline anti-drug policy taken by his Philippine counterpart, Rodrigo Duterte, the Indonesian president said publically it was OK for police to shoot at drug suspects.
"Be firm, especially to foreign drug dealers who enter the country and resist arrest. Enough, just shoot them. Be merciless," Jokowi said in a speech in Jakarta in July 2017.
Data released in October 2017 by the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), showed about 6 million Indonesians were drug users.
Up to that point in 2017, Indonesian authorities had shot and killed 79 alleged drug dealers and arrested 58,365 suspects linked to drug abuse, the agency reported.


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BENARNEWS- A jailed cleric who has been widely described as Indonesia's most influential Islamic State-linked ideologue denied allegations on Friday that he masterminded the deadly 2016 terror attack in Jakarta or instructed followers to kill "heathens."
Aman Abdurrahman, 46, issued his first public rebuttal of the latest charges against him during testimony at the South Jakarta District Court, where he is facing the death penalty over allegations that he organized a series of terror strikes while behind bars.
Police said eight people died, including four militants, in two bomb explosions and shootings that unfolded during daylight hours on a busy avenue not far from Indonesia's Presidential Palace.
Prosecutors on Friday asked Aman if he was involved in the attack, the first terrorist act claimed by the Islamic State (IS) in Southeast Asia.
"I didn't instruct them to do it," Aman replied. "I learned about it from other inmates who saw the news on TV."
If convicted of charges that he plotted that attack, Aman could receive a life sentence or the death penalty, lawyers said.
Aman is the de facto leader of IS supporters in Indonesia, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In January 2017 the U.S. government designated him a "global terrorist," alleging that he founded the militant group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), composed of two dozen pro-IS groups.
Prosecutors said Aman had also inspired militants in a suicide attack that killed three police officers at a bus station in Jakarta last year and the Molotov cocktail blast that killed a 2-year-old and injured three other children at a church in Samarinda city in East Kalimantan province two years ago.
The attackers were inspired, prosecutors said, by Aman's writings about "heathen" countries, and his translations of sermons by al-Qaeda figures, on millahibrahim.net – a site now blocked by the Indonesian government.
Aman denied this.
"My view of heathenism does not authorize bloodshed," Aman told the court. "Like in Samarinda, that violates what I believe about how to behave towards Christians."
He said his writings assert that a Muslim living among "heathens" is forbidden to steal from or otherwise disturb them – or to have physical contact with those who have fallen into "idolatry."
"That's the thrust of millahibrahim," he said, apparently referring to the blocked website. "I never killed anyone."
Prosecutors said they had studied Aman's books and other writings known to have influenced militant groups, which were presented as evidence.
"There are orders to carry out jihad there," prosecutor Mayasari told the court.
Inspiring militants while behind bars
Aman was first sent to prison in 2004 for seven years for a failed terror plot in West Java, but he was released in 2008 for good behavior.
He was re-arrested and again imprisoned in 2010 on charges that he set up a training camp for the now-disbanded militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) in Aceh province, at the northern end of Sumatra island.
His nine-year prison term on those charges was supposed to end in August 2017 as part of an Independence Day sentence-reduction scheme, but he was re-arrested a few days before his release after officials charged him of involvement in other terror attacks.
Aman's trial spotlighted the loopholes in Indonesia's overcrowded prison system, where terrorism plots are hatched and banned materials are smuggled in with ease, security analysts say.
"No question that Aman Abdurrahman is Indonesia's most important extremist ideologue, whose writings and sermons, disseminated online and over social media, influenced thousands," Sidney Jones, director of Jakarta-based think-tank Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), told BenarNews.
Aman's ability to reach out to his followers declined, as did his access to news about developments, when prison officials placed him in an isolation cell and took away his cellphone after the January 2016 Jakarta attacks, Jones said.
In April 2016, prison officials moved Aman from the maximum-security prison complex in Nusakambangan island, to a special isolation cell at the national police special operations headquarters in Depok, West Java, a suburb of Jakarta, Jones said.
The decision to transfer Aman came after police discovered that the four militants who mounted the Jakarta attack in January had visited him at least three times, officials said.
Intelligence officials believe Aman also made phone calls from Nusakambangan to someone in Raqqa, Syria, which was then an IS stronghold.
The phone calls were uncovered after authorities examined 14 mobile phones found in a jail cell he shared with Iwan Darmawan Muntho, who is on death row for his role in the 2004 bombing of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta.
 

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Prosecutor Mayasari (left) shows the books written by Aman Abdurrahman (right) at the South Jakarta Court, April 27, 2018. [Arie Firdaus/BenarNews]

 
A link to Zarqawi
Aman, who was born in Sumedang, West Java, pledged allegiance to the militant group IS in 2014, according to court documents.
Aman attended Islamic boarding schools and studied at the Saudi-backed Islamic and Arabic College of Indonesia in Jakarta, also known as LIPIA, where he received a bachelor's degree and graduated cum laude, according to the nonprofit Counter Extremism Project (CEP).
Aman began his career as a university lecturer but was dismissed in early 2000 for adopting a radical interpretation of Islam, CEP said.
Aman rapidly rose to popularity in the country's low-tech extremist movement, security analysts told BenarNews.
Taufik Andrie, executive director of the Institute for International Peacebuilding, a Jakarta-based NGO, said Aman began promoting extremist views in 2004, after a court sentenced him to seven years in prison for bomb-making and terror activities.
While in prison, Aman apparently accessed writings attributed to Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, the Jordanian-Palestinian writer also known as Essam Muhammad Tahir al-Barqawi, a mentor of al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
"He became more active in interpreting al-Maqdisi's views and it was widespread," Taufik told BenarNews. "It helped Aman gain popularity and he often received invitations to speak in many places."
Solahudin, a terrorism researcher from University of Indonesia's Center for Terrorism Studies and Social Conflict, said Aman started as a preacher at As-Shofa mosque in South Jakarta, and  might have started gaining wider recognition in mid-2003.
"He is smart. He can memorize all verses in the Quran," Solahudin told BenarNews.
On April 17, Solahudin told a court hearing that Aman was a source of knowledge for imprisoned IS sympathizers.
"The defendant is considered to be the most knowledgeable on IS ideology," he said.
'Those present chose an amir'
It was at the maximum-security Nusakambangan prison that Aman met Abu Bakar Bashir, the spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorists who carried out the 2002 Bali bombings.
Prosecutors said that Aman later collaborated with the ageing cleric to establish a jihadist training camp in Aceh, western Indonesia. Abdurrahman was arrested for his activities later that year and sentenced to nine years in prison.
Indonesia, the most populous Muslim-majority nation, has 477 prison facilities housing more than 201,500 prisoners, including 220 who were convicted of terrorism, IPAC said in a 2016 report.
"The poor physical state of the Indonesian prison infrastructure and serious overcrowding facilitates radicalization," it said.
Navhat Nuraniyah, a research fellow at the Singapore-based S. Rajaratnam School of Internatonal Studies, described Aman  as "one of Indonesia's most influential jihadi ideologues and a vocal promoter of ISIS," the other name for IS.
IPAC, in its February 2016 report, said about 100 members of Indonesia's pro-IS groups held a meeting on Nov. 20, 2015 at a hotel in Malang, East Java, and formed a new organization named Partisans of the Caliphate (Jamaah Ansharul Khilafah or JAK).
"Those present also chose an amir, but it remains unclear whether it is Aman Abdurrahman, although he is clearly the group's dominant figure," the report said. "Aman's lack of jihad experience was a possible disqualifier."


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BENARNEWS- About 39 percent of Indonesian university students have been exposed to radical Islamic ideology, Suhardi Alius, the head of Indonesia's National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT), told BenarNews.
The counter-terror chief confirmed a figure given April 28 by Budi Gunawan, the head of Indonesia's National Intelligence Agency (BIN), during a lecture to a college seminar in Semarang, Central Java.
"That's an estimate, we're talking about a survey. That's what it indicated," Suhardi said in Padang, West Sumatra, on Wednesday. "The important thing ... is that we recognize and prevent it."
"Not just students, but their teachers also must be monitored," he said. "These days I'm always visiting campuses."
Wawan Purwanto, a BIN spokesman, said the figure came from BIN internal research conducted at state and private universities in 15 provinces in 2017.
"Three universities attracted BIN's notice because of the high levels of dissemination of and support for radicalism and  extremism," Wawan said.
He declined to name the universities but said their rectors had been notified so they could address the situation.
"Ignorning it could have a negative impact, as when a person who is a sympathizer later becomes a supporter of terrorist acts," he told BenarNews.
On tens of thousands of questionnaires distributed at universities, he said, many respondents indicated they would support making Indonesia an Islamic state, and expressed support for the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, he said.
"They were asked to mark 'agree,' 'don't agree' and 'don't know.' The graphic showed that 24 percent of college students and 23.3 percent of high school students agree with the concept of violent jihad," Wawan said.
Efforts to counter radicalism
Yenny Wahid, director of the Wahid Foundation, a non-governmental organization that promotes interreligious and cross cultural understanding,  agreed that radicalism has been present on campuses for decades while efforts to counter it are relatively new.
"We see that there are efforts by the government to ward off radicalism, especially on campuses, but it needs to be continually increased," she said. "Radicalization movements continue systematically, building narratives and offering dreams that in fact are far from reality."
Wahid Foundation researcher Alamsyah M. Djafar cited research carried out in 2017 where 7.7 percent of 1,500 adults surveyed said they were prepared to carry out radical actions if they had the opportunity.
"The government should be concerned about this figure. It needs to be tackled with a variety of approaches," he said.
Radicalism targets campuses because young people are easily influenced and do not have a deep understanding of religion, he said.
The figures cited by BIN and BNPT are consistent with findings of the Jakarta-based Alvara Research Center and Mata Air Foundation in October 2017. The groups polled 1,800 students from 25 leading universities in Indonesia and 2,400 students from high schools across Java and other islands.
"We asked about the state ideology with a statement saying, 'The Islamic state is worth fighting for to implement more consistent Islamic teachings' and 23.5 percent of college students agree, and 16.3 percent of high school students agree," Alvara CEO Hasanuddin Ali told reporters in Jakarta
The survey revealed that 17.8 percent of university students and 18.3 percent of high school students preferred the concept of a caliphate ruled by a Muslim spiritual leader over Indonesia's current republic.
Commitment
At a Bali meeting in September 2017, about 3,000 university leaders from across Indonesia declared their common commitment to root out intolerance and radicalism on campus.
Several Indonesian institutions have been working together to tackle the problem, according to Wawan, the BIN spokesman. He cited the Education Ministry, the Religious Affairs Ministry, the Indonesian Ulema Council and university rectors.
"It's done openly through seminars, hoaxes on social media are corrected, cyber patrols so students don't ingest raw information they encounter that could point them in the diection of radicalism and extremism," he said.
The Ministry of Religious Affairs also is involved in efforts to prevent radicalism on campuses.
"We have a center of research on moderate religious education from pesantren (Islamic schools) all the way through to university levels," said Kamaruddin Amin, the ministry's director-general for Islamic education.
His department oversees the activities of extracuriccular religious groups run by students, through school officials. And if teachers are ignoring moderate curriculums and teaching radicalism "they can be reported, and we will train them," he said.
A University of Indonesia spokeswoman, Rifelly Dewi Astuti, said the institution promotes the concept of Indonesian nationhood and pluralism, forbids intolerance and radicalism on campus, and has prevention mechanisms in place.
"They include counseling, monitoring of students' academic records and periodic guidance every semester by academic counsellors in each department," she said.


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BENARNEWS- Five Indonesian policemen and an inmate were killed after a riot broke out over a food complaint at a prison housing convicted terrorists near Jakarta, authorities said Wednesday while denying a claim that Islamic State (IS) extremists were involved.
As of early Thursday (local time), the last officer held hostage had been released at the Mobile Brigade (Brimob) detention facility in Depok, according to police, who said they contained the riot earlier.
"Police had to shoot one of them because he fought officers and took an officer's weapon," police spokesman Brig. Gen. Muhammad Iqbal told reporters in front of Mako Brimob, the Mobile Brigade's national headquarters where the maximum-security detention center is located.
He said the riot started Tuesday evening when an inmate asked a police officer for food that had been brought by his family. The officer was not aware of the delivery, triggering an angry response from the inmate.
"Suddenly, there was a loud voice from block C shouting harsh words at the officer," Iqbal said, adding that the incident provoked other inmates.
The five police officers who died were identified as Yudi Rospuji, Deni Setiadi, Fandi Setyo Nugroho, Syukron Fadli, and Pamungkas. Two were members of the nation's elite police wing Densus 88, which often takes part in counter-terrorist operations, and three were police investigators. The dead prisoner was identified as Benny Samsutrisno.
The IS-affiliated Amaq News Agency said its extremists were involved in the riot, according to SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S.-based website that monitors online communications among Muslim extremist groups worldwide.
SITE reported that IS shared photographs on social media showing the hostage and inmates carrying weapons inside the detention center.
Rohan Gunaratna, the head of the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore who is also a BenarNews contributor, confirmed Amaq's statement.
"The statement of Amaq is credible," he told BenarNews by phone on Wednesday.
Iqbal, who had been at the prison since Tuesday night, disputed the IS claim.
"I saw step by step, process by process ... that's completely untrue," he said.

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Police stand guard in front of the Mobile Brigade (Brimob) detention facility in Depok, Indonesia, following a riot that killed five officers, May 9, 2018. (Arie Firdaus/BenarNews)

 
Cleric, former governor housed in prison
The Brimob center houses 130 terrorist prisoners scattered across three blocks, including cleric Aman Abdurrahman, the de facto leader of Indonesian IS supporters. He is on trial on charges stemming from recent terror attacks in Indonesia, including the Jakarta shooting and suicide bombings in January 2016, claimed as the first IS attack in Southeast Asia.
Iqbal said prison officials allowed the inmates to meet with Aman on Tuesday evening. After the meeting, the militants had additional demands.
Police spokesman Setyo Wasisto told an Indonesian TV station that the inmates who provoked the riot were members of Jemaah Anshorut Daulah (JAD), a network of extremist groups formed in 2015 and which pledged allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Associated Press reported.
"There are about 30 to 40 hardliners and inmates from JAD who provoked other inmates," Wasisto said.
Not all prisoners are terrorists. Former Jakarta Gov. Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, who was sentenced last year following his blasphemy conviction, is held in a different wing of the prison for security reasons and is safe, according to a government official.
National security concern
Meanwhile, Wiranto, Indonesia's coordinating minister of political, legal and security affairs, expressed concern about the riot.
"It has to be carefully and seriously handled because it is linked to national security," Wiranto told reporters, adding that police officials must handle negotiations properly "based on the law."
A human rights leader said the riot exposed a threat facing Indonesia.
"The attack by convicted terrorists in the jail shows the existence of terror groups which are effective and have become a threat to security," said Hendardi, representative of the Jakarta-based human rights group Setara Institute. "This incident reminds all parties not to compromise with radicalism and terrorism that threaten the security and ideology of the nation."
The detention center is near where three suspected Islamic militants were arrested on Friday for allegedly targeting attacks on the Brimob command headquarters in West Java, Gadog traffic police station in Bogor and police headquarters in Bogor Regency.
In addition, another riot broke out six months ago among prisoners at the same Brimob facility in Depok, during which they raised the black flag of IS, Channel NewsAsia reported.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian police said Friday they had shot and killed two suspected terrorists, including one who fatally stabbed an officer, after the pair allegedly planned to help inmates who were rioting at the Mobile Brigade (Brimob) detention facility in West Java.
Also on Friday, officials announced that a court hearing for an alleged Islamic State (IS) leader housed in the prison was postponed for a week because of the two-day riot that left five officers dead and inmate dead. Amaq, a news agency affiliated with the extremist group Islamic State, claimed IS supporters were behind the riot at the prison holding convicted Indonesian terrorists, but police rejected the online claim.
National Police spokesman Inspector Gen. Setyo Wasisto said the first suspect, a 40-year-old identified by the initials R.A., was killed in Tambun Bekasi early Thursday after he and a colleague, J.G., 30, tried to strangle officers who were taking them to Jakarta for questioning.
"They also tried to seize firearms so police shot them both," Setyo added.
The men and two others were arrested at Tambun Station in Bekasi after police received information they were heading toward Brimob to assist the inmates, Setyo said. J.G. has been treated at a police hospital while the other men are in police custody as officers continue their investigation.
"From the interim investigation, the four are members of JAD (Jamaah Ansharut Daulah), Bandung," Setyo said, referring to the Indonesian network of the extremist group Islamic State that pledged allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Later on Thursday, police shot and killed alleged militant Tendi Sumarno, 23, after he fatally stabbed another officer at the Brimob compound.
"We are still investigating," Setyo said, adding the attacker pulled out a hidden knife and stabbed the officer who was questioning him for being at the compound.
The officer was killed hours after 155 terrorist inmates, who had started a riot at the center on Tuesday evening, killing five policemen and holding another one hostage, surrendered.
Deputy police chief Syafruddin said the five officers were killed sadistically. Most had deep neck wounds and other wounds on their bodies. In addition, four other officers were injured including the officer who was taken hostage.
One inmate was killed as well.
Riot details
The riot began Tuesday evening when an inmate asked an officer for food that had been brought by his family, police said. The officer was not aware of the delivery, triggering an angry response.
Authorities said 155 inmates had armed themselves with about 30 weapons taken from an area where the prison stored contraband seized during police operations, Reuters news service reported.
Wiranto, Indonesia's coordinating minister of political, legal and security affairs, said the inmates were asked to surrender one by one, and 145 of them complied, giving up their weapons. The final 10 surrendered at 7:15 a.m. Thursday after police conducted an ambush, but he did not release details of the action.
The 145 were transferred to the maximum-security facility on the Nusakambangan penal island in Central Java, while the 10 holdouts remained at Mako Brimob as part of the ongoing investigation.

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Aman Abdurrahman (left), talks to his lawyer during a hearing in the South Jakarta District Court, April 28, 2018. [Arie Firdaus/BenarNews]

 
Hearing postponed
Meanwhile, the court hearing Friday for Indonesia's most prominent IS ideologue, Aman Abadurrahman, on charges related to his alleged involvement in recent terror acts in Indonesia was postponed for a week.
"We cannot bring the defendant to court, therefore we cannot read out the charges today. We request a postponement," prosecutor Anita told the South Jakarta District Court, according to local media.
The hearing was rescheduled for next Friday.
"Probably because the situation is not yet conducive because of the riot in Mako Brimob," defense lawyer Asludin Hatjani told BenarNews.
National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Muhammad Iqbal said the inmates had demanded a meeting with Aman as part of their negotiations. Police allowed the meeting.
A recording calling for prisoners to surrender circulated online on Friday. When asked if the voice on the recording was Aman, Setyo replied "I need to check it first."


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BENARNEWS- At least 13 people died and more than 40 others were injured Sunday when a couple and their four children set off suicide bombs at three churches in Indonesia's second largest city, Surabaya, in the worst terrorist attack in the country in two years, police and witnesses said.
The couple and their two boys, aged 16 and 18 and two girls, aged 9 and 12, were linked to Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a local group inspired by the Islamic State (IS), National Police Chief Gen. Tito Karnavian said. IS later claimed responsibility for the attack through its Amaq news agency.
"The father drove the Toyota Avanza carrying his wife and their two children. He dropped his wife and two daughters, 12 and 9, at GKI," Karnavian said, referring to one of the three targeted churches.
"[He] then drove the car containing bombs to the Pentecostal Church and blew it up. Meanwhile, two boys set out on their own riding a motorbike to Santa Maria's church. Both blew themselves up in front of the church."
Agence France-Presse identified the father as Dita Priyanto, while news reports identified the mother as Puji Kuswati.
Police said Dita led the JAD branch in East Java province, whose capital is Surabaya. The suicide bombings were the first involving a woman and children in Indonesia, officials said.
Earlier on Sunday in West Java province, police said they killed four suspected militants who resisted arrest.
Sunday's bombings took place a few days before the start of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan and amid a growing climate of intolerance by conservative religious groups in Muslim-majority Indonesia against members of its small Christian minority.
The attacks were the deadliest targeting Christians since 2000, when 18 people were killed when homemade bombs disguised as holiday presents exploded at some churches across the country on Christmas Eve.
The churches attacked in Surabaya on Sunday were the Santa Maria Tak Bercela Catholic Church, the Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) of Surabaya and the Surabaya Central Pentecostal Church (GPPS).
A witness described the attack at Santa Maria Tak Bercela Catholic Church.
"I just came out of a street stall and immediately there was a loud explosion," Pembayun Abi Prahara told BenarNews.
"There were some pieces of bodies scattered. Looking at the pieces, I realized that this is a bombing," he said.
Meanwhile, a witness to the GKI bombing, Mulyo Hartono, said he saw a woman wearing purdah - a head covering signifying she was of the Muslim faith - walking with two children who were dressed the same way entering the church.
"A church security officer tried to prohibit them, then the explosion happened," he said. "It seems the two children did not survive."
Mulyo tried to help the security officer but stopped after he saw a backpack on one of the children.
"Then I heard the second explosion," he said.
East Java police spokesman Senior Commissioner Frans Barung Mangera said 13 people were confirmed dead and 41 who were injured were being treated at several hospitals in Surabaya as of Sunday evening.
The first church attack occurred at 7:08 a.m. (local time) and was followed by the second and third attacks within minutes, witnesses told BenarNews.

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Police officers stand guard near Indonesian Christians Church in Surabaya, May 13, 2018. (Yovinus Guntur/BenarNews)

 
Barung said the police bomb squad unit found three undetonated bombs in two of the churches.
"One was found at the GKI and two more active bombs were found at the Pentecostal Church," he said.
After meeting with victims who had been taken to area hospitals, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo inspected the bombing scenes. He was accompanied by Karnavian, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Wiranto, Military Commander Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto and State Intelligence Agency chief Budi Gunawan.
"Terrorist acts this time are really barbaric and out of bounds against humanity, causing harm to community members, police officers and innocent children," Jokowi told reporters after visiting the Police Bhayangkara Hospital in Surabaya.
He added that terrorism was a crime against humanity that had nothing to do with any religion.
"All religious teachings reject the doctrine of terrorism whatever the reason," he said.
The president said he ordered the national police chief to investigate the militant networks responsible for the attacks and to dismantle them at their roots.
Densus 88 kills four
In other developments on Sunday, members of the nation's elite police wing Densus 88 shot and killed four suspected terrorists in West Java province's Cianjur district, authorities said.
"Police took firm action because the four resisted by shooting at officers who attempted to arrest them," national police spokesman Setyo Wasisto told reporters in Jakarta.
Sunday's violence occurred several days after inmates rioted at a maximum-security detention center at the Mobile Brigade (Brimob) headquarters in West Java's Depok district, leaving five police officers and an inmate dead.
"Based on intelligence information, they were on the way to Brimob headquarters. They planned to conduct a hit-and-run attack with weapons and arrows," Setyo said.
JAD was blamed for the prison riot earlier this week. The group is led by Aman Abdurrahman, who is detained at Brimob and who police allowed to speak to the rioters in response to one of their demands.
Indonesia's worst ever terror attack occurred in Bali in 2002 when bombs killed 202 people, mostly tourists. More recently, a gun and bomb attack in Jakarta in January 2016 killed four attackers and four civilians in the first assault on Indonesian soil claimed by IS


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BENARNEWS- As many as 32 Indonesians have died in a surge of terrorist attacks and counter-terror operations during the last 48 hours, including the country's first two suicide bombings perpetrated by entire families, which were claimed by the Islamic State.
The incidents, most of them in East Java, left 13 victims and 19 suspected terrorists dead and dozens injured, according to police.
One day after a family of six carried out triple church-bombings in Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city, another family attacked the city's police headquarters early Monday, police said.
Four members of the family that perpetrated Monday's attack were killed in the blasts, but a fifth member, a girl around 8 years old, emerged from it covered in blood, authorities said. They said the young girl was on a motorcycle driven by attackers.
"Four people killed, while the girl was thrown off and survived," Indonesian national police chief Tito Karnavian told a news conference, adding that six civilians and four officers were wounded in the attack.
It took place after an entire family, including girls aged 9 and 12, blew themselves up in near simultaneous bomb attacks that targeted three churches in Surabaya, the capital of East Java province, around the time of Sunday services, according to authorities. As of Monday night, the death toll in the bombings targeting members of Indonesia's Christian minority stood at 19, including the six perpetrators, police said.
Police blamed the church attacks and the attack on police headquarters on Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a local group inspired by Islamic State.
"They chose Surabaya because they controlled this area. They launched the actions because their leaders were arrested. The instruction came from the central ISIS in Syria," Karnavian told reporters, using another acronym for IS.
Police identified the father of the family that carried out Sunday's attack as Dita Apriyanto, 47, and said he was the leader of JAD's Surabaya cell. They identified his wife as Puji Kuswati, 43.
A witness, Mulyo Hartono, said he saw a woman wearing purdah – a Muslim head covering and veil – walking with two children who were dressed the same way entering the church.
"A church security officer tried to prohibit them, then the explosion happened," Mulyo said.
The attack on Sunday was the first time that a woman and children were killed while mounting a suicide attack in Indonesia, police said.
Blasts captured by CCTV
Monday's explosions took place around 9:30 a.m. Footage from closed-circuit TV showed two motorcycles stopped at a checkpoint at the entrance to police headquarters when a pair of bombs went off, Karnavian said.
A Surabaya police officer, who happened to be nearby, rushed over and picked up the bloodied girl as she staggered near the prone bodies of a man and a woman believed to be her parents, the national police chief said. Police believe the other two suspects killed belonged to the same family.
About two hours earlier, officers raided a housing complex in Sukodono, Sidoarjo, about 30 kms (18 miles) from Surabaya, arresting three suspected terrorists and killing two others, East Java provincial police spokesman Frans Barung Mangera said.
Jokowi demands action from lawmakers
Reacting to the spate of attacks, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo called on the House of Representatives (DPR) to urgently revise the nation's anti-terrorism law when its session resumed on Friday, or he would issue a regulation in lieu of law to empower law enforcers in the war against terror.
The planned revision was introduced in February 2016, just weeks after a Jan. 14, 2016, attack in Jakarta that killed four civilians and four militants. Jokowi and others have said the revision was needed because the law does not include any preventative measures, meaning it is not illegal to travel abroad to join a terrorist organization.
M. Safi'I, the chairman of a special House committee on anti-terrorism, responded that the revision was still not finished because there was no agreement between the administration and DPR regarding the definition and elements of terrorism.
"The agreed points include crime, massive terror to the community, inflicting casualties, destruction of strategic vital objects and there are political motives and objectives," he told BenarNews.
He said discussions had been postponed because the word "politics" was omitted from the definition of terrorism.
"This we do not agree on because all acts of terrorism must have a political element," he said, adding that his committee was unsure when the bill would be passed.
Boy succumbs to injuries
Late Sunday, an 8-year-old boy who had been injured at Santa Maria Catholic Church, one of the three bombed churches, died of his injuries, according to a press statement issued by Bedah Hospital in Surabaya where he was being treated.
Also on Sunday night, an explosion in an apartment building in Wonocolo, Sidoarjo killed a couple and their child while two other children were injured, according to Frans. Police suspect that the three who died were planning a terror attack. Police identified the head of the household as Anton Ferdiantono, 46, and said he was a bombmaker.
Earlier in the day, members of the nation's elite police wing, Densus 88, shot and killed four suspected terrorists in West Java province's Cianjur district, authorities said.
The ongoing violence occurred days after inmates rioted at a maximum-security detention center at the Mobile Brigade (Brimob) headquarters in West Java's Depok district, leaving five police officers and an inmate dead.
JAD, which was blamed for the prison riot, is led by Aman Abdurrahman, who is detained at Brimob and who police allowed to speak to the rioters in response to one of their demands.
Sidney Jones, director of the Jakarta-based think-tank Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), said IS wanted to deliver a message to Indonesia.
"Mako Brimob was not spontaneous, but planned long before the incident. It is too early to know for sure whether what happened in Kelapa Dua, Cianjur and Surabaya were related, or whether more than one group is involved," she told BenarNews.
"Although ISIS has been defeated in Syria and Iraq, leaders want to prove that in Indonesia it is still functioning," she said using another acronym for IS.
Sunday's church terror attacks were the deadliest since the January 2016 Jakarta attack. Indonesian authorities also blamed JAD for that attack, the first terrorist strike claimed by IS in Southeast Asia.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian police said they were intensifying their search for a pair of men believed to be the ideological teachers of three families involved in suicide bombings in East Java province, while officers fatally shot two suspected militants in separate incidents on Tuesday.
One family set off bombs at three churches on Sunday morning in Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city, while another family blew themselves up at a checkpoint outside police headquarters there the next day. A third family's bomb exploded prematurely in their apartment Sunday night, according to police.
"We are still in pursuit. There are two I hope to arrest soon," East Java Police Chief Machfud Arifin said without naming the suspects.
Surviving children from a couple of the families told police about the men and meetings that their families attended, authorities said.
As many as 34 people, including 21 suspects, were killed in the spate of Islamic State-linked attacks and counter-terrorist operations that unfolded over the past three days, according to figures compiled by BenarNews.
On Tuesday night, members of the nation's elite police wing Densus 88 killed a suspect during a shootout in East Java when officers tried to arrest him over his alleged role in the suicide attacks, officials said. Officers said they shot another suspect in the leg and arrested three others.
Provincial police spokesman Frans Barung Mangera said the dead suspect was about 40 years old. His body was sent to the Police Bhayangkara Hospital for identification.
Meanwhile, National Police Chief Tito Karnavian confirmed that a second suspected militant was killed in a shootout in another part of the country.
"Most recently, Densus 88 arrested five suspected terrorists in Tanjung Balai, North Sumatra," he told a television audience Tuesday night, referring to the dead suspect and the four others.
In East Java, police said they had arrested 13 suspected militants in Surabaya, Sidoarjo, Pasuruan and Malang since the suicide attacks began.

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Officers transport the body of an alleged terrorist to the Police Bhayangkara Hospital in Surabaya, May 14, 2018. (Yovinus Guntur/BenarNews)

 
Frans said the suspects were linked to Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a local group inspired by the so-called Islamic State (IS). The international extremist group claimed responsibility for the suicide attacks through its Amaq news agency.
Children link suicide families
On Sunday morning, Dita Apriyanto, 47, his wife, Puji Kuswati, 43, and their four children were killed while carrying out bomb attacks at three Surabaya churches.
A bomb exploded prematurely Sunday night in an apartment occupied by a family headed by a man identified as Anton Febrianto, police said. Anton, his wife Puspita Sari, and a child were killed. Three children survived.
A day later, Tri Murtiono, 50, his wife, Tri Ernawati, 43, and their children blew themselves up outside Surabaya city police headquarters, authorities said.
The family's youngest child, an 8-year-old girl, survived the blast while her two older brothers died with their parents.
Machfud said the surviving children told investigators about the three families attending meetings together.
"Every Sunday there was a routine meeting spent with the families," Machfud said about the revelations, adding that the meetings focused on preparing for a jihad and sometimes included the viewing of jihadist videos.
"Regular Quran recitation every Sunday, often at Dita's house," he added.
Dita has been identified as a JAD cell leader in East Java.
Priest calls for forgiveness
The suicide bombings shocked Indonesians because these marked the first time in the country that radicalized people had involved their children, including girls as young as 8 and 9, in committing terrorist attacks, police said.
Even though Sunday's bombings targeted members of the Christian minority, a priest at Santa Maria Tak Bercela Catholic Church, which was attacked that day in Surabaya, said Catholics should not be afraid. Terrorists, he said, were the victims of their own misunderstanding and people should learn to coexist.
"By practicing coexistence, mutual help, and standing shoulder to shoulder, terrorist acts will be replaced by peace," Father Aloysius Widyawan said, advising Christians and others to forgive the terrorists.
"Fear is a human thing, but if we are afraid without doing acts of kindness, ultimately it will not make things better," he said.
Meanwhile in Indonesia's capital, interfaith leaders and others gathered Tuesday to support government efforts to combat terrorism.
"These incidents [in Surabaya] have gone beyond human boundaries by killing many people, even small children involved in the terror movement," said a joint statement issued by participants in the Movement of Citizens against Terrorism, which rallied in Jakarta.
Sinta Nuriyah Wahid, the widow of former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur), who was known to his admirers as the "father of pluralism," said such attacks could destroy a nation.
"But I am sure that, with this incident, the brotherhood of the nation will become stronger based on Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution," she said, referring to Indonesia's five-pillared state philosophy that emphasizes national unity and pluralism.
Abdul Moqsith Ghazali, who represented the board of the Indonesian Ulema Council, the nation's leading body of scholars of Islam and the religion's jurisprudence, spoke out against the terror acts carried out by Muslim families.
"Terrorism is not based on religion because it is wrong. Involving women and children is clearly wrong. In Islam, suicide is forbidden," he said.
'Indefensible'
In other related developments on Tuesday, the Philippine government said its embassy in Jakarta had been in touch with more than 250 Filipinos in Surabaya, following the bombings.
The government has advised the Filipinos to remain vigilant and to limit their movements until the situation normalizes, Manila said.
Elsewhere, Human Rights Watch issued a statement condemning the terrorist attacks and calling on the Indonesian government should reach to the victims of the church attacks as well as surviving children who were used in carrying out the acts.
"The bombings of Christian churches show the grave risks Indonesia's religious minorities face every day," said Andreas Harsono, senior Indonesia researcher for the New York-based international rights watchdog. "The horror of these attacks was magnified by the attackers using their own children as suicide bombers."
"Deploying children in such a way is indefensible and deplorable," he added.


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BENARNEWS- Four suspected terrorists and a police officer were killed Wednesday after a group attacked a police station in Riau province on Indonesia's Sumatra island, officials said.
The incident, in which two other policemen and two journalists were injured, was the latest in a series of terror strikes to shake Indonesia this week.
"We are in a state of alert. We took decisive action and succeeded in deactivating four perpetrators. Then we secured some pieces of evidence," Riau police spokesman Sunarto told journalists.
The other attacks included triple church bombings that killed at least a dozen victims and six perpetrators in Surabaya, East Java, and an attack on a police station in that city in which four suspected bombers died, authorities said. Two families with children as young as 8 and 9 carried out the earlier attacks, according to police.
The extremist group Islamic State claimed those attacks, while police in Riau said they believed that a homegrown organization aligned with IS had launched Wednesday's raid. The Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack via its Amaq news agency, according to SITE Intelligence Group, a service that monitors jihadist communications.
 
Attackers arrived at the police facility in a white minivan and rammed through a side gate, according to a police officer in Pekanbaru, the provincial capital, where the attack took place.
"After entering the yard of the regional police headquarters, a perpetrator wearing a mask got out and drew a samurai sword and attacked ... injuring two policemen," Riau police spokesman Sunarto told journalists.
A police officer struck by the van was rushed to hospital and declared dead moments later.
Police shot dead the swordsman and three others who got out of the van. The driver fled the scene but was later captured.
Two television journalists who were nearby preparing to cover the destruction of confiscated drugs also received sword injuries, Sunarto said.
The two policemen who were hacked were identified as Brigadier Jon Hendri, whose thumb was cut, and Police Commissioner Farid Abdullah, who was injured in the back of his head.
In Jakarta, national police spokesman Setyo Wasisto named the four slain terror suspects as Mursalim (alias Ical alias Pak Ngah), 42; Suwardi 28; Adi Sufiyan, 26; and Daud. Separately, Riau police chief Nandang said Mursalim was thought to be a member of Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a local group linked to IS.

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Police escort accused terrorist Syawaludin Pakpahan to North Jakarta District Court, May 16, 2018. [Photo Courtesy of Center for the Study of Radicalism and Deradicalization]

 
Militant sentenced
Meanwhile, in Jakarta, a man who fatally attacked a policeman in North Sumatra province a year ago was sentenced to 19 years in jail after being convicted under Indonesia's anti-terrorism law.
"The defendant stabbed a police personnel in the chest repeatedly, resulting in death," judge Jootje Sampaleng said in reading out the verdict.
In a change from procedures seen at recent terrorism trials, defendant Syawaludin Pakpahan, 43, arrived in court under tight security, with six police officers surrounding him and his legs and hands both bound.
Syawaludin was one of 155 inmates who was involved in a riot last week at a Mobile Brigade (Brimob) detention facility in Bogor, south of Jakarta. Five members of the security forces and one inmate died in the violence, which lasted some 30 hours and was claimed by IS.
On June 25, 2017, Syawaludin and one other man entered a police compound in North Sumatra and stabbed to death a police officer, then set the sentry post where they found him on fire.
The second attacker, named as Ardial, was shot dead as the two tried to attack another officer.
During court testimony, Syawaludin said he was inspired to act based on writing and lectures of jailed cleric Aman Abdurrahman that had been uploaded on the internet. According to U.S. authorities, he founded JAD, which is made up of about 24 pro-IS groups.
Abdurrahman is also currently on trial, for inspiring an IS-claimed attack in the Indonesian capital that left eight people dead in January 2016. The latest hearing of his trial was postponed after the riot, which took place in a different building of the facility where the cleric was being held.
Syawaludin fought in Syria for six months in 2013 as a member of the Free Syrian Army, battling the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, an analyst with the Center for the Study of Radicalism and Deradicalization, a Jakarta think tank, told BenarNews earlier. He was the first Syria returnee to perpetrate violence in Indonesia, according to the analyst, Adhe Bhakti.
Syawaludin did not join the so-called Islamic State while in Syria but interacted with some of its members, and later declared allegiance to its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi after returning home to Indonesia, the analyst said.
Also Wednesday, in the city of Banten, just west of Jakarta, three individuals with suspected links to JAD were arrested at three separate locations, said Setyo Wasisto, the national police spokesman.
"We're investigating now," Setyo said. "But they are not from one family."


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BENARNEWS- Suicide bombings carried out by entire families in Indonesia this week may be the first of their kind in the world and represent both the power of Islamic State indoctrination and the current weakness of the organization, analysts said.
Four children aged 9 to 18 died along with their parents in triple suicide bombings at churches in Indonesia's second city of Surabaya on Sunday.
That night, an apparently accidental bomb blast killed a couple and one of their four children at their home in a nearby district. On Monday,  a family of five detonated bombs at a Surabaya police station, killing all but an eight-year-old daughter.
"This may be the first time in the world, parents took their children to blow themselves up. These kinds of attacks are unprecedented," Sidney Jones, director of the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), told BenarNews.
Even at the height of Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian terror network that carried out the 2002 Bali bombings, "families were committed to the cause, but only adult male would ever be considered a warrior," she said.
Now, Islamic State (IS) has turned the concept of jihad into a "family affair," with roles and a sense of mission for everyone.
She noted that jailed Indonesian militant Syaiful Anam (alias Brekele) allowed his 12-year-old son Hatf to go to Syria with relatives in August 2016. Hatf died in combat two months short of his 13th birthday.
Thayyep Malik, a researcher from the Prasasti Perdamaian Foundation agreed, that the bombings suggest violent jihad is no longer reserved for men but is now "for women and children too."
"As for parents capable of taking their children to carry out a bombing, it's about ideology, the ideology of death. Although it's not easy for them, certainly, they are still  human."
Stanislaus Riyanta, an intelligence and terrorism expert from University of Indonesia, said the attacks also show that IS indoctrination "is so strong that if that with the slightest provocation "they are ready to retaliate and even ready to die."
"But children are victims here. They don't understand what's going on, they are just indoctrinated with the ideology of their parents. This is very dangerous," he said.
Sofyan Tsauri, a onetime police officer who became a weapons supplier for Bali bomber Dulmatin and served time in prison, said parents who sacrifice their children are enthralled with messianic end-of-times ideology.
They "drift into illusion, hallucinating" that the world is just a tempting illusion, he said.
"They often say, 'let's go to heaven, together, there is no pain,'" he said.
But the use of women and children has a "hidden message" of provoking men into action, he added.
"The message is that, 'we have sacrificed ourselves, where are you? Where are the warriors?'" Making male jihadists "ashamed" of their inactivity is "the basic motivation," he said.
Nava Nuraniyah, an IPAC analyst, said the use of women and children had tactical advantages for Islamic State while at the same time pointing to its weakness.
Due to gender bias, police are less likely to suspect women of criminal or terrorist activity.  For example, security checks for women entering prisons are far less rigorous, she said.
Meanwhile, the family bombings have attracted new attention to a network that failed to hold onto its so-called caliphate in Iraq and Syria.
"The media pays much more attention if they do something different. A whole family carrying out an act of terror is a first for Indonesia.  So if they succeed, it becomes a sensation. That's what they look for," she said, referring to attack planners.
"Perhaps because the position of the organization is weak, they choose women to do it," she added.


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BENARNEWS- Friends and neighbors of two Indonesian families who killed themselves in suicide bombings at three churches and a police headquarters said earlier this week they were shocked by the attacks that killed a dozen innocent civilians.
Police tape kept visitors from approaching the Surabaya house that Tri Murtiono and his family leased for two years, beginning in February. Officers stopped and requested identification from anyone, including journalists, approaching the house.
Tri, his wife and two sons died when they rode up to a checkpoint at the Surabaya city police headquarters on two motorcycles and blew themselves up on Monday morning. Their 8-year-old daughter, who was on the front of one of the motorcycles, survived the blast.
A neighbor, Parman, 44, said Tri had an aluminum business, installing doors and window frames.
"All the children went to school in Surabaya. We had never thought they would be involved in the attack," Parman said.
While not close to their neighbors, the family sometimes joined activities such as night patrols, said Parman, who uses one name.
"On Sunday, when news of the church bombings broke, Tri was working with us at the community mosque," Parman told BenarNews on Thursday.
"After the church attacks, he told us his wife called," Parman said, adding that he never saw the family again after Tri received the phone call. The couple and their two children were the only people killed in the bombing that injured four police and six civilians.
A member of the mosque's staff, Parman said he never noticed anything suspicious about the family, but he did notice that Tri seemed to be careful when carrying boxes.

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A crowd gathers as Indonesian police raid a house of suspected terrorists in Surabaya city, capital of East Java province, May 16, 2018. [Yovinus Guntur/BenarNews]

 
 
Parents supported daughter
Meanwhile, a representative of the parents of Puji Kuswati spoke to BenarNews.
Puji set off suicide bombs with her daughters, aged 9 and 12, prior to one church service on Sunday morning. Her husband, Dita Apriyanto, drove a minivan packed with explosives into another, and their two sons, aged 16 and 18, blew themselves up at a third using scooters loaded with bombs.
The blasts killed a dozen worshipers at the Santa Maria Tak Bercela Catholic Church, the Indonesian Christian Church of Surabaya and the Surabaya Central Pentecostal Church.
Puji's parents, who live in Banyuwangi, 188 miles (300 km) southeast of Surabaya, expressed shock after hearing that she was involved in the suicide bombings, according to Rosiono, who claimed he was speaking for the couple.
Puji's parents, who own a business selling herbal medicines, helped her buy their house and vehicles, Rosiono said.
"Puji was spoiled by her family," said Rosiono, who noted that the couple disapproved their daughter's marriage.
"Her husband seemed to have different beliefs about Islam," Rosiono told BenarNews.
Earlier, police identified Dita as the leader of an East Java cell of Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), the Indonesian militant network that pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
As of Thursday, the bodies of the two families, along with three members of a third family who were killed Sunday night when their bomb exploded prematurely inside their apartment, had gone unclaimed by relatives. The three families regularly held Quran recital meetings and sometimes watched jihadist videos, according to investigators.
Police said they were searching for two ideological teachers of the families. 

Since Sunday, officers have arrested 19 suspects and killed four others during police operations in Surabaya and four other areas, East Java Police Chief Machfud Arifin said. He urged JAD members to surrender and promised Christians they would be safe during worship.
"We are guarding churches and other vulnerable locations," Machfud said.
Riau arrest
Meanwhile, police have arrested eight suspected terrorists across the region a day after Wednesday's attack at Riau Police Headquarters, National Police Chief Gen. Tito Karnavian told reporters.
He said the attack, which killed a police officer and four suspects, was linked to last week's riot at a police detention facility in Bogor, near Jakarta, where five police officers and an inmate also died


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BENARNEWS- A West Jakarta district court sentenced an Islamic State (IS) sympathizer Tuesday to four years in prison after finding him guilty of influencing, recruiting and facilitating the travel to Syria of the militant group's supporters.
After hearing the verdict, Iman Santoso smiled, shook hands with the judges, the court clerk and his lawyer, and said he was delighted to receive a relatively light prison sentence.
"The defendant Iman Santoso (alias Abu Umar bin Kosasih Bakri), has been proven legitimately and convincingly guilty of committing a crime of terrorism," said the presiding judge, Sarjiman, who uses only one name.
Along with the sentence, the court ordered Iman to pay a fine of 50 million rupiah (about U.S. $3,540), with a provision that if he fails to pay, he will be required to serve an extra four months behind bars.
The verdict was lighter than the seven-year prison term sought by prosecutors.
Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation of 262 million people, has imprisoned hundreds of suspected extremists since bombings killed 202 people and injured hundreds more on Bali island 16 years ago.
Influencing family members
Iman had influenced the decision of his brother-in-law Dwi Djoko Wiwoho, 50, to leave Indonesia with his family in 2015 to join IS in Syria, according to court documents. Prosecutors said they believe Iman also facilitated the travel.
Djoko, a former high-ranking civil servant from Batam, an Indonesian island about 12 miles (18 km) from Singapore, went to Syria with his wife, their three children, his mother-in-law who died in Syria from an illness, his other brother-in-law, Heru Kurnia, and Iman.
The family linked up with 19 other people who also left for Syria on Aug. 1, 2015, prosecutors said.
Djoko and his family were among 18 Indonesians who turned up at a refugee camp near Raqqa in June 2017, telling reporters they had been enticed to Syria two years earlier by the promise of a prosperous life with the IS.
The 18 were sent back to Indonesia in August 2017 and attended a rehabilitation program organized by the Indonesian National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT).
Djoko and Heru Kurnia face similar charges in separate ongoing trials in the same courthouse.
During his hearing in March, prosecutors alleged that Djoko trained with IS fighters in Syria and accused him of having a role in funding the international militant group.
"The defendant sold his house on July 2015 for 500 million rupiah (U.S. $36,372) and used part of that money to go to Syria," prosecutor Jaya Siahaan said at that time.
"After five days, the defendant stopped training because he didn't want to be a soldier and only wanted to be a regular civilian who supports IS," the prosecutor said. "But the defendant's action violated the anti-terrorism law."
Djoko could face life in prison if convicted.
Spate of IS-inspired attacks
Iman's sentencing took place days after a spate of IS-inspired militant attacks in West Java and East Java killed 45 people, including 27 suspects.
Those attacks, between May 8 and May 16, included suicide bombings carried out by three families, accompanied by their young children who targeted churches and police in Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city.
Iman received a lighter verdict for good behavior during his detention and after repenting, prosecutors said.
"The important thing is you, brother, really repent and will not repeat your wrongdoing," Sarjiman said.


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BENARNEWS- Police in Indonesia's Poso regency say they have stepped up security following a series of deadly terrorist-linked incidents elsewhere in the country, including a prison riot in Java, suicide bombings in East Java and a police headquarters attack in Sumatra.
The regency in Central Sulawesi province has had a long history of militancy. Poso is home to the Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT), a militant group tied to the so-called Islamic State (IS), which claimed the recent attacks in other parts of the sprawling country.
"After the terror acts, we immediately positioned ourselves under the top alert," Poso regency Police Chief Bogiek Sugiyarto told BenarNews last week, a few days after a suicide bombing at a police headquarters in Surabaya.
The heightened security in Poso matches efforts throughout the country. The national police announced Tuesday that a week-long counterterrorism operation, which ended Sunday, had resulted in 60 arrests and the killings of 14 suspected militants.
"In addition to anticipated threats from outside Poso, we also anticipate threats that come from inside Poso," Bogiek said, adding that areas vulnerable to radical groups had been monitored.
He said sympathizers of terrorist groups, or even suspected terrorists, could be in Poso and could act at any time.
Last week, 30 fully armed police personnel stopped and checked each car passing a check point along the Trans Sulawesi road leading into the district.
A Poso residents said armed officers were spotted in many locations and patrolling residential areas.
"It's been a very tight security in Poso for a few days now. Even the local people have to show their identity cards if they are questioned," resident Ardin Adnan told BenarNews.
Hunting MIT
This type of security is not new for the community that saw about 1,000 people killed in a series of communal riots in 1998 and 2000.
More recently, Poso has grown accustomed to security officers as about 600 troops constitute a joint task force operating as Tinombala with a mission of hunting down the remaining MIT members hiding out in the mountainous region.
In 2016, the task force replaced a similar operation that aimed to capture or kill the remaining 40 MIT members. The success of their missions brought the group's number to less than 10 with the loss of its leadership, officials said.
Top MIT leader Santoso (alias Abu Wardah), was killed in July 2016 and his second-in-command, Basri (alias Bagong), was arrested two month later. But the group is still seen as a threat as it operates under the leadership of Ali Muhammad (alias Ali Kalora or Ali Ambon).

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This still photo taken from a social media video shows MIT chief Ali Kalora (center), calling on his members to keep fighting. [Keisyah Aprilia]

 
In the last couple of weeks, a two-minute, 14-second video of the new MIT chief calling for his followers to fight and not negotiate with the government has circulated on social media. Ali, who appeared in the video standing between two men armed with M-16s, said they relied on their weapons to keep from being captured.
Mohammad Affandi, a director of a local human rights group, said the video showed the group had not disbanded.
"The video proves that they are still in Poso," he said, asking how a group that is supposed to be cornered has the ability to post this on social media.
Central Sulawesi Police Chief Brig. Gen. Ermi Widyatno had little to say about this.
"No need to exaggerate it," he said. "We still will investigate it!"
Previously, Widyatno had said that seven MIT members were at large.
More recently, a Central Sulawesi military spokesman, Muhlis Lamongki, said the group had added five members, although two had been arrested. He based his comment on testimony of the two militants who were captured in April.
'No trouble'
Meanwhile, Darmin A. Sigilipu, the regent of Poso, said the region was safe and prosperous.
"Everything is OK. People can do their daily activities, no trouble. The economy is good and we have had a number of investors come and invest," he said.
The Poso government, he explained, had a de-radicalization program for MIT families and followers, including employment opportunities.
"We have helped many, especially the families of former combatants in Poso. They now all have got back to the community," he said.


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BENARNEWS- After a two-year debate, the Indonesian parliament on Friday unanimously strengthened its 2003 anti-terrorism law, allowing police to take preventative measures and formalizing a military role in counterterrorism efforts.
Pressure to pass the bill grew following terrorist violence over the last two weeks that, according to National Police chief Tito Karnavian, killed 13 civilians, seven police and 31 terror suspects.
The revised law was approved a day after factions in a parliamentary committee handling the bill agreed that spreading ideology or political views that threaten national security could be defined as terrorist acts.
It allows police to wiretap terror suspects without first seeking a warrant from a district court if they are "strongly suspected of preparing, planning, and/or conducting terror acts."
In addition, those who have been affiliated with or joined illegal military training in Indonesia or overseas aimed at carrying out terror attacks can be charged with violating the anti-terror law.
Special committee chairman Muhammad Syafi'i said Indonesians who visit countries such as Syria would now be assessed when they return and if it was established that they had participated in military training to plan terror acts in the country, they would be charged.
"The National Counterterror Agency [BNPT] is officially in charge of the assessment. If a person has not been yet been exposed to radicalism, that person can be included in a counter radicalization program," Syafi'i said. "But if he or she is proven to have committed terror crimes or planned to carry them out, he or she can be charged with violating the law."
Expanded rights for victims
Syafi'i said initiatives in the revised law focus on prevention through countermeasures, rehabilitation and supervision.
Human rights would be addressed during the arrest of terror suspects, Syafi'i said, adding they would be treated humanely and no torture would be allowed.
"This has to be understood to stay in line with the universal principles of human rights," he said.
In addition, the revised law expands victim protection beyond compensation and restitution.
"The revised law also regulates other rights such as medical assistance, psychological and psychosocial rehabiliation, compensation for lost lives, restitution and compensation distribution," Syafi'i said.
Military involvement
Law and human rights minister Yasonna Laoly said technical details of the military's role in combating terrorism would be regulated by presidential decree. The law on the military's mandate states the force can be involved in counterterrorism as well as military operations and war, he said.
Although Indonesia's military has already been involved in some counterterrorism operations, such as efforts to flush out Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT) militants from the jungles of Central Sulawesi, there had been some resistance to expanding or formalizing that role.
Activists had feared a renewed domestic role for the military could restore its prominent and at times repressive role in civilian life. Withdrawing the military from internal security was a key achievement of the reform era following the fall of dictator Suharto in 1998.
Armed Forces Chief Hadi Tjahjanto said he appreciated parliament's giving troops additional duties in the fight against terrorism, recognizing the threat to the national security.
"Now that we have been included, we are ready to move, while waiting for the presidential decree to be issued," he said.
"Surely we will detect any signs that point to terror attacks. We will anticipate it," he said.
Previously, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said the implementation would commence as soon as the bill was approved.
"What's most important is how to implement the law," he said.
Jokowi also said there should be no doubt about the military's role because it has long been involved in the campaign against terrorism.
"Furthermore, the presidential decree will regulate it," Jokowi said


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia and India pledged Wednesday to strengthen defense ties as the leaders of Asia's two largest democracies agreed to develop a strategic naval port at the mouth of the Malacca Strait, one of the busiest shipping channels in the world.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo upgraded bilateral relations and signed 15 agreements including on maritime cooperation, according to a joint statement issued after they met at the presidential palace in Jakarta.
"We agreed to boost cooperation in [the areas of] infrastructure and connectivity," Jokowi told reporters at the presidential palace in Jakarta as he hosted the Indian leader on Modi's first official trip to Indonesia as prime minister.
Modi, 67, was on the first leg of a three-nation tour of Southeast Asia that will also take him to Malaysia and Singapore.
"We will continue to advance our cooperation in developing infrastructure, including at Sabang Island," Reuters quoted Jokowi as telling reporters.
Modi embarked on the trip as part of his government's "Act East" policy, which involves cultivating closer relations with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
"The India-ASEAN partnership can be a force to guarantee peace and progress in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond," Modi said in a statement read in Hindi after meeting with Jokowi, Reuters reported.
Last week, Jakarta newspapers quoted Indonesian Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan as saying that the existing port at Sabang, which is about 40 meters (about 130 feet deep), could be developed to accommodate commercial boats and submarines.
Sabang, also known as Weh Island, is about 2 hours by ferry from Banda Aceh, the largest city in the Indonesian province of Aceh. Sabang lies about 109 miles (175.4 km) southeast of the southernmost island in India's Andaman and Nicobar Island chain.
New Delhi's access to Sabang, which is at the northern tip of Sumatra island and at the entrance to the Malacca Straits – through which 40 percent of India's trade passes – would mark a major shift in Indonesia's ties with India amid rising concerns over China's growing assertiveness in the region, according to analysts.
Widodo visited New Delhi in December 2016 and was among the 10 ASEAN heads of state who attended India's Republic Day parade earlier this year.
Jokowi's agreements with Modi are in line with his "Global Maritime Fulcrum Vision," according to the joint statement.
During his presidential campaign in 2014, Jokowi focused on the "fulcrum" theme, declaring his goal to make the Indonesian Navy a regional power. Since his election, Indonesia has increased defense spending to modernize its navy through upgrading ports and purchasing new ships, according to The Diplomat.
"We want the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean to remain peaceful and safe for world trade, not used as a platform for the seizure of natural resources, territorial disputes or maritime supremacy," Jokowi told the East Asia Summit in 2014.
Modi has a similar vision. His "Act East," a progression from the "Look East" policy dating to 1992, strives to strengthen India's relationships with ASEAN.
Cooperation in countering radicalism
During their meeting Jokowi, a Muslim, and Modi, a Hindu, discussed the importance of interfaith dialogue to create peace and social harmony while promoting democracy and human rights.
"The two leaders also share the same view of the importance of combating radicalism and re-emphasized the importance of promoting peaceful pluralism that will result in a harmonious civilization and moderation through a holistic approach," according to the joint statement.
The two countries agreed to hold interfaith dialogue in Indonesia in early October, followed by a similar dialogue in India next year, the statement said.
According to Ahmad Qisa'i, an analyst at the Jakarta-based Paramadina Graduate School of Diplomacy, the bilateral maritime agreement signed by the two leaders would mostly benefit India.
"India needs to ensure the continuity of supply for its nuclear material from Australia and oil from Vietnam, which transported through territory of Indonesia and ASEAN," he told BenarNews.
He also said interfaith dialogues were not enough on their own to bring peace and social harmony.
"There should be a real way in learning and exchanging the experiences facilitated by the governments of Indonesia and India, through which Indonesian Muslims can study in moderate Islamic study centers in India and vice versa," he said.


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BENARNEWS- Judges will decide the fate of Aman Abdurrahman, a terrorism defendant accused of mentoring Islamic State followers in Indonesia, on June 22, a  judge said Wednesday.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the radical cleric they accuse of masterminding terror attacks that killed nine people, including a 2-year-old girl, in 2016 and 2017.
"The hearing will be after Lebaran," head judge Akhmad Jaini said in announcing the sentencing date in South Jakarta District Court, using the Indonesian term for the holiday that ends Ramadan and falls this year in mid-June.
Aman is the de facto leader of Islamic State (IS) supporters in Indonesia, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In January 2017 the U.S. government designated him a "global terrorist," alleging that he founded the militant group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), composed of two dozen pro-IS groups.
If Aman is found guilty, it will be his third terrorism conviction. He had previously been sentenced in 2005, after an explosive device detonated in his residence, and again in 2010, for involvement in a terrorism training camp in the mountains of Aceh.
Jihad call on social media
Prosecutors say Aman is a key IS ideologue who was responsible for a series of terrorist acts in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, in 2016 and 2017, although he was in prison at the time.
They include a terror attack on a busy Jakarta boulevard in January 2016; a Molotov cocktail blast at a church in Samarinda, East Kalimantan province in November 2016; a suicide attack at a Jakarta bus station in May 2017; and attacks on police in West Nusa Tenggara and North Sumatra. Nine people, including a 2-year old girl, were killed in the attacks.
Aman insisted again in court Wednesday he knew nothing of the incidents and heard about them only after they occurred.
"If it's linked to the principle of declaring this a non-believer government, please, punish me with any punishment. If you want it to be a death sentence, please go ahead," the 46-year-old told the court on Wednesday. "If it's linked to [terrorism] cases, in this trial there has not been even one witness who stated I was involved."
Prosecutor Anita Dewayani said Aman was linked to the attacks because they were carried out by members of the Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) network he created.
"It's not a coincidence," she said. "What's more, the defendant also released a written appeal that circulated on social media in 2015."
The appeal called for followers to carry out jihad wherever they were, and if they were unable to migrate to Syria, to do jihad in the form of supporting others through words or donations.
"That appeal  incited and provoked his followers to carry out jihad, resulting in bombings and murders," the prosecutor said.
Aman's lawyer, Asludin Hatjani, asserted that no fact laid out in court had demonstrated that his client was involved in acts of terrorism.
"He only encouraged his followers to migrate, not to spread terror in their own country," Asludin said.
He said his client had stated in court that recent suicide bombings at churches in Surabaya did not align with his teachings.
"The people who carried out or endorsed the events in Surabaya, are mentally ill," Aman said in court at a previous session.
Aman's trial spotlighted the loopholes in Indonesia's overcrowded prison system, where terrorism plots are hatched and banned materials, including cellphones, are smuggled in with ease, security analysts say.
Deportees Being Questioned
Separately, counterterrorism police were questioning five women and three children deported from Turkey for attempting to cross into Syria, officials said.
The eight returned to Indonesian on May 24 and were taken into custody of Densus 88, the elite counterterrorism force.
The five adults were identified as Irma Novianingsih, 24; Fitri Luthfiana, 43; Ainun Jariyah, 21; Wasiatun Nisa Damad, 33; and Qurrota Ayun Muhdi, 23. The children were aged 3, 9 and 12, authorities said.
Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, an Indonesian foreign ministry official, said the Turkish government intercepted the eight before they entered Syria.
"They have been handed over to Densus 88 for questioning," he said.
Turkish authorities have deported 492 Indonesians since 2015, according to Foreign Ministry data.
Setyo Wasisto, a police spokesman, told BenarNews that Densus 88 had one week to question the group.
"We don't yet have info on whether they were involved in ISIS or not. They are being examined," he said.
'In Shock'
Irma's parents said she had told them she was going to Kalimantan, the Indonesian portion of Borneo, to become a teacher.
"We are still in shock, from hearing this news," Riyadi, 47, tearfully told BenarNews at the family home in East Java's Tulungagung regency.
Since then, police and soldiers have searched the house and questioned them, she said.
Riyadi said Irma had not come home since bidding her parents farewell in June 2017, allegedly to teach in another province. "We did not know Irma left the country," said her father, Mujiatin, 50.
On campus, at the State Islamic Institute, at a state-run Islamic college in Tulungagung regency, Irma was known for being a private person who wore a long veil and interacted only with close friends,
Agus Ali Mashuri, a student acquaintance, said that sometime in early 2017 word got around that she was inviting friends to learn archery, an unusual activity for Indonesian women.
An assistant rector at the school, Abad Badruzzaman said she had dropped out at the beginning of her seventh semester at the school, after missing classes frequently during the previous semester.
East Java arrests
Meanwhile, East Java police spokesman Frans Barung Mangera said Densus 88 on Tuesday evening arrested four suspects linked to suicide bombings in Surabaya on May 13 and 14.
The individuals aged 42 to 54 were arrested in separate locations in nearby Probolinggo Regency, and one of them was a civil servant, he said.
A fifth suspect was arrested near a mosque in Tropodo village of Sidoarjo regency Wednesday, bringing the total number of people arrested in East Java since May 13 church bombings to 31, he said.
Four other people were shot dead while resisting arrest, according to Frans.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian counterterror police are questioning six men detained in Sumatra on the weekend, including three who were allegedly plotting to bomb Indonesia's national parliament, officials said.
Police picked up three individuals in Pringsewu, near the southern tip of Sumatra, on Sunday, Amran Ampulembang, an intelligence  official at Lampung regional police, told BenarNews.
The day before, at Riau University in Pekanbaru, about 700 miles north, authorities seized four handmade bombs and arrested three suspects who were plotting to attack the national parliament building in Jakarta and the provincial parliament building as well, Riau Regional Police Chief Nandang told reporters.
The men, former students of the university, are suspected members of Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), National Police spokesman Muhammad Iqbal told BenarNews in Jakarta. JAD is composed of about two dozen Indonesian extremist groups that have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, according to the U.S. government, which has listed the network as a terrorist entity.
Iqbal confirmed only one arrest in Lampung and declined to say whether that detainee was linked to the three arrested in Riau.
"We're still investigating. Still trying to find out," he said.
He also said it was too soon to say whether the men arrested in Riau were linked to a May 16 terror attack on a Pekanbaru police station in which four suspected terrorists and a police officer were killed.
"Whether they are linked to the attack on the Riau Regional Police is also being investigated. ... As is the question of the money flow and why they were [on campus] when their status is that of alumni," Iqbal said.
But Riau police spokesman Sunarto said one suspect, identified only as "Z," had been asked to make a bomb for the attackers, although he did not do so because he was busy.
On May 16, an officer was killed and four other people were injured when a white van rammed into the yard of a police station in Pekanbaru. Four men who got out of the van, including one wielding a samurai sword, were shot dead. The driver fled but was later apprehended.
The attack was one of several terrorism-related incidents in May including suicide bombings at churches in Surabaya and a prison riot at a facility near Jakarta. In all, 51 people – 13 civilians, seven police and 31 suspects – died, according to a BenarNews count.
'Cheerful'
Riau arrestee "Z" often stayed at the rustic headquarters of a campus environmental group, according to university students who knew him and expressed astonishment at his arrest over terrorism allegations.
"Z"  was a funny, cheerful guy who typically wore T-shirts and hiking boots, said one student, who declined to give his name.  Another said he stayed on campus because his parents live outside Pekanbaru.
Indonesia's National Counterterrorism Agency earlier named seven campuses where students were at risk of exposure to radicalism, but stressed the list was not exhaustive and only included schools in Java.
The seven schools are University of Indonesia in Jakarta; Bandung Institute of Technology; Bogor Institute of Agriculture; Diponegoro University in Solo; November 10 Institute of Technology in Surabaya; Airlangga University in Surabaya; and Brawijaya University in Malang.


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BENARNEWS- Comparing militant ideology to a virus, Indonesia's police chief on Tuesday proposed to deploy anti-terror squads nationwide, as the largest Muslim-majority country grapples with a string of suicide attacks, including bombings that targeted three churches in recent weeks.
Expanding the presence of the country's counterterror squad known as Densus 88 to 34 provinces would allow it to respond faster to terror threats or attacks, national police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian told reporters after attending a parliamentary hearing in Jakarta.
"I want to strengthen Densus 88, which so far only has 16 task forces. I want to make it into 34 task forces, one in each province," Karnavian said.
Special Detachment 88, known locally as Densus 88, was formed after Indonesia's worst terror attack in Bali in 2002 when bombs killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
Karnavian issued the statement 11 days after the nation's parliament strengthened its 2003 anti-terrorism law, allowing police to take preventive measures and formalizing a military role in counterterrorism efforts.
He said the country faced high terror threats because extremist cells and networks had spread to most provinces in Indonesia.
"This terrorist ideology is just like a virus. It can target anybody. It can target all circles just like drugs," he said.

To fund his plan to deploy anti-terror teams nationwide, Karnavian sought approval from parliament for his proposal to increase the police budget by 44.4 trillion rupiah (more than U.S. $3.1 billion) for next year.
"This needs the approval of the House," he said.
Indonesia, a nation of 262 million people, has faced a resurgence of recent extremist attacks as security analysts warn of dozens of its citizens returning home after fighting for the extremist group Islamic State (IS) in the Middle East.
In early May, five Indonesian policemen and an inmate were killed after a riot broke out over a food complaint at a prison housing convicted terrorists near Jakarta. Several terrorism-related incidents took place during the same month, including suicide bombings at churches in Surabaya.
In all, 51 people – 13 civilians, seven police and 31 suspects – died, according to a BenarNews count.
Karnavian said 82 suspected terrorists had been arrested in Indonesia following the prison riot.
'Iceberg' of radical ideology
Karnavian warned that the recent terror attacks represented only the tip of the iceberg of radical ideology, which was rapidly taking root in the community.
"The ideology spreads by taking the advantage of freedom brought by the democratic system," he said, explaining that social media had made it easier for militants to communicate.
Indonesia's move to revise its 2003 anti-terror law on May 25 allows police to take preventive measures and formalizes the military's role in counterterrorism efforts. It also allows police to preemptively detain suspects for longer periods, according to legal experts.
Police intend to crack down on terrorism and address its ideology, the root cause of the problem, Karnavian said.
"This involves the government; other stakeholders and the community, including mass organizations that need to work together," he said. "It must be organized in a national action plan to contain and neutralize radical ideologies."


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BENARNEWS- Troops from Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines will hold joint land-based exercises as part of an effort to curb the spread of militancy in the region, Indonesian Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu said Friday.
The exercises will take place in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo island, he said.
"I'm planning it. Implementation will be after Ramadan," Ryamizard told reporters after a ceremony at the Defense Ministry in Jakarta, but without giving further details.
According to Ryamizard, Malaysia and the Philippines had agreed to this, but defense officials from those countries could not be reached immediately to confirm this information.
Last week, during a speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue security conference in Singapore, the minister indicated that the three neighboring countries were looking to add joint ground patrols to existing trilateral air and sea patrols targeting pro-Islamic State (IS) militants in the region.
"In the future, two months from now, we will step up and elevate this cooperation through the land forces joint operation," Ryamizard told the Singapore meeting.
"The aim of this joint operation is to locate ISIS in the southern Philippines and stop it from spreading," the Indonesian defense minister said, using another acronym for IS.
During a bilateral meeting in Singapore with Malaysian counterpart Mohamad Sabu, Ryamizard said the training exercise "at a company level" would focus on "anti-guerrilla warfare, urban warfare and how to tackle snipers."
A company is a military unit that usually consists of 80 to 150 soldiers and often commanded by a major or a captain.
Ryamizard told Mohamad that the militants in southern Philippines were skilled marksmen and it was necessary for the three countries to equip their forces with better rifles.
The three nations began trilateral patrols in June last year after pro-IS militants launched a siege in the southern Philippine city of Marawi. Five months of vicious fighting ended in October and killed at least 1,200 people, mostly militants, including the acknowledged Philippine IS leader Isnilon Hapilon.
The Marawi fighting emboldened other Southeast Asian terror cells aligned with the Syria- and Iraq-based IS, according to analysts.
Among the 31,500 foreign fighters who had joined IS in Syria, about 800 came from Asia, including 400 from Indonesia, the largest Muslim-majority country, Ryamizard said on June 2, citing intelligence data from his government.
In Singapore, Ryamizard talked about the joint plans to curb the spread of IS in and around the southern Philippines as his own country grappled with a string of terror attack in recent weeks, including bombings that targeted three churches and killed 51 people, including 13 civilians, seven police and 31 suspects.
Indonesia, a nation of 262 million people, faces a resurgence of extremist attacks as security analysts warned that dozens of its citizens would return home after fighting for IS in the Middle East.
"Maritime patrols have been already implemented, the air patrols too, even though mostly through drones, but it is the same. But not the land patrols yet, even though the combined land forces exercise is very important," Ryamizard said.
Malaysia's Sabah state is a short boat ride from islands in the Philippines' Mindanao region, where pro-IS Muslim guerrillas and other armed Muslim groups operate. The waters between the two countries are extremely porous and analysts said the three nations shared coastal borders that have long been used for smuggling routes.
To involve elite forces
Indonesia's Defense Ministry spokesman, Brig. Gen. Totok Sugiharto, told BenarNews that the exercise would involve the three forces from the Indonesian National Army (TNI).
"This is also a continuation of the collaboration of the intelligence sharing strategy 'Our Eyes' which was launched earlier," he said, referring to sub-regional cooperation with Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand launched earlier this year in Bali, Indonesia.
Khairul Fahmi, a military observer from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), told BenarNews the joint ground patrol exercises are needed as the three neighbors face militant groups with similar characteristics.
"There is a need to increase and standardize ability to paralyze these groups," he said.
CORRECTION: An earlier version incorrectly reported that Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia were launching trilateral land-based patrols and these would take place in Mindanao island in the southern Philippines.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia's Social Affairs Minister has pledged to protect and rehabilitate seven children who were orphaned when their parents were killed last month while they allegedly prepared for or were carrying out terrorist attacks in and near Surabaya, East Java.
The ministry received the children on Tuesday from East Java Provincial Police after they were flown to Jakarta.
"They have been handed over to the Ministry of Social Affairs. However we are still coordinating and doing evaluations to determine further steps," Social Affairs Minister Idrus Marham told reporters.
Without going into detail about rehababilitation efforts, Idrus said the program would be conducted in cooperation with other relevant ministries and government agencies, such as the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT).
"Slowly but surely we can neutralize the doctrine of terrorism and we can fill them with teachings of the rahmatan lil alamin Islam," he said, referring to the term "Islam as a blessing for all."
Idrus said his office would provide protection and assistance to the children to restore their confidence before gradually erasing radical ideology taught by their parents. Officials are unsure how long the process will take.
"We would need to see development involving their physical and psychological health. The most important thing is to clean their minds completely from radical ideology," he said.
The three boys and four girls between the ages of 4 and 15 have received medical and psychological treatment in Surabaya since their parents' deaths.
Three of the orphans – aged 10, 11 and 15 – are children of Anton Febrianto, a suspected militant who was killed with his wife and a 17-year-old child when a bomb exploded prematurely in an apartment in Sidoarjo, near Surabaya, on May 13.
Three others are children of suspected militant Dedy Sulistianto, who was shot dead by police in a raid in Surabaya on May 15. Dedy is Anton's younger brother.
The last child, a 7-year-old girl, survived a suicide attack on May 14 at a police checkpoint in Surabaya that killed her parents and two brothers.
Also on May 13, a family of six, including children carried out suicide bombings targeting three churches in Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city. All six family members were killed along with 12 other people.
'Good and proper'
Idrus said the orphans in his ministry's care were in a "good and proper" place, but refused to identify the location for their privacy and safety.
"I am convinced after two or three days to adapt accompanied by educative mentoring, they can feel at home in the place we provided," he said.
The ministry has provided care for 81 children tied to terrorism, he added.
"We will evaluate. We cannot implement the program rigidly. We have to be flexible because it is a matter of ideology and religious understanding that we have to deal with seriously," he said.
"When we are confident that they are clean from radical ideology, then we can take the next step."
Ministry staffer Neneng Heriyani said the children's first day at the rehabilitation center went well.
"They are adjusting to a new environment," he told BenarNews on Wednesday, adding they were accompanied by grandmothers and other family members.
Any Rufaidah, a researcher with the Jakarta-based University of Indonesia's Center for Research and Police Science, said the effort to put children into the rehabilitation center was proper because they needed to be removed from their home environment.
"The presence of the state is important. But it must be ensured that the Ministry of Social Affairs has a clear platform on how to help these children and there should be an assessment of each individual," she said.
She said the children needed supervision.
"Their interactions should be monitored at the first stage. Once it is confirmed they would not negatively influence others, let them interact as this becomes an important part of understanding the differences with other people," Any said.
Terror trials
Meanwhile last week, the country's broadcasting commission released a statement instructing television, radio networks and others to refrain from airing terrorist trials live, Indonesian media reported.
In May, a national police spokesman said ongoing coverage of terror trials could raise sympathy from supporters and turn a suspected terrorist into a role model, according to an article published Monday by the Jakarta Post.
It noted that the statement came three days after the trial of Aman Abdurrahman, who is accused of masterminding terror attacks by Islamic State followers that killed nine people, including a 2-year-old girl, in 2016 and 2017, was delayed briefly following explosion-like sounds.
Judges in the South Jakarta District Court are to decide Aman's fate on June 22.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian authorities have arrested four suspected Islamic State supporters after uncovering a plot to attack a police district headquarters, a police spokesman said Wednesday.
Members of the anti-terror squad Densus 88 made the arrests Tuesday in two locations, Syahar Diantoro, head of the police's general information section, told reporters.
"They were planning to launch an amaliyah at the Kebumen District Police Office," Syahar said. "Amaliyah" is a term that radical groups often use to describe a terror attack.
"They belong to the ISIS network, based on the results of the interim examination. We are still investigating whether they are related to JAD," he said, referring to Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a local militant group that has pledged allegiance to ISIS, another acronym for the extremist group Islamic State (IS).
Three of the suspects, 18 to 33 years old, were arrested in Cimahi, West Java district, while a 26-year-old man was arrested in Central Java's Kebumen district, Syahar said.
He said authorities had detected and foiled the terror plot by monitoring Telegram, an encrypted messaging app popular among IS supporters.
Brig. Gen. Muhammad Iqbal, the national police spokesman, told BenarNews that the arrests were part of a police operation to hunt down terror networks in the country.
"Of course, this is part of the developments we are undertaking to prevent acts of terror throughout the regions," he said.
Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, has faced a resurgence of recent extremist attacks as security analysts warn that dozens of its citizens would be returning home after fighting for IS in the Middle East.
The country of 262 million people moved to revise its 2003 anti-terror law in May this year after a wave of recent deadly bombings put the spotlight on lawmakers.
Legal experts said the revised law gives police enhanced powers to take pre-emptive action, including detention of suspects for longer periods, and formalizes the military's role in counterterrorism efforts.
More arrests after Surabaya bombings
Three church bombings in Surabaya on May 13 and one bomb blast at an apartment near the city and the attack at the Surabaya police headquarters the following day claimed 27 lives, including 13 perpetrators, police said. The attackers had ties to JAD, according to investigators.
At least 96 suspected militants have been arrested since those attacks, Iqbal said, adding that police had also killed 14 suspects when they resisted arrest.
"Later we will announce the data of who are the suspects and who are proven to be not guilty. We are always open," he said.
In August last year, Indonesia lifted its threat to ban Telegram, which has several million users in the country, after the company's co-founder and CEO, Pavel Durov, met Rudiantara, the minister of Communications and Information, in Jakarta, and promised to eradicate terrorist propaganda and content.
Iqbal said the monitoring of terrorist movements included overseeing social media.
"In addition to the information we get from the arrested suspected terrorists, we also watch their movements in social media," he said.


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BENARNEWS- Muhammad In'am Amin sipped his coffee slowly. Strong and black.
In'am, the brother of Indonesian Islamic State (IS) suicide bomber Wildan Mukhollad who blew himself up in Iraq, said his love of the brewed beverage and his goal to motivate terror convicts to renounce their radical past inspired him to open a coffee shop in Yogyakarta, capital of Yogyakarta province in Java.
Gandroeng Kopi, which In'am opened in 2015, now has 20 employees and attracts former convicted terrorists, who meet up at the café to hang out and also learn the fine points about becoming a barista.
"Sometimes they just show up," In'am told BenarNews. "If I am not out of town, I will meet and spend time with them. And I also teach them, if they want, how to make their own coffee."
The idea behind his coffee shop was to motivate such people to shun militancy and put their bitter past behind bars in the rear-view mirror by starting afresh in a new environment, In'am said.
He never was radicalized himself but his childhood friends included a trio of brothers who grew up to become co-perpetrators of the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people and injured hundreds more.
"They have to be diverted and their environment needs to be replaced. A coffee shop is a great way to get along with many people, not just people from your network," In'am said.
Syaiful Arif or "Ipul" is among the former convicts who frequent his coffee shop. After serving time following his conviction for bomb-making during deadly communal riots in Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province between 1998 and 2001, Syaiful now thinks about opening his own café.
"Maybe it will not be as big as his place," said Ipul, who currently works as a construction worker in Lamongan regency, "because I don't have lots of money."
"Just a small one," he said.
Ipul admitted enjoying the coffee and the hospitality served at In'am's café. Besides being a coffee lover, he said, he always looked forward to the conversation and the intimate atmosphere shared by its customers.
They made him feel welcome.
"Basically, I like coffee. I can immediately get the techniques I was taught," Ipul told BenarNews, wrinkling his face with a proud smile. "I can make delicious coffee drinks."
Ipul was arrested in 2003, served six years in prison and immediately returned to his local community upon release. Returning to normal life was a struggle, he admitted.
But thanks to the approach by In'am and Ali Fauzi Manzi, a former convicted bomber, Ipul now has an open mind. At the celebration of Indonesian Independence Day last year, Ipul even joined the ceremony to raise Indonesia's red and white flag – an activity forbidden by militants.
Ali Fauzi, a brother of the trio of militants behind the 2002 Bali bombings – Ali Imron, Ali Ghufron and Amrozi – founded Lingkar Perdamaian Foundation, an organization that aims to reintegrate terror convicts back into society.
"I've known In'am since childhood, until he became an entrepreneur and when he fell and then rose again," Ali Fauzi told BenarNews.

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From left: AKBP Sinungwati, a representative of the Yogyakarta Provincial Police, Muhammad Wildan of Sunan Kalijaga University, Ali Fauzi Manzi from the Lingkar Perdamaian Foundation, and In'am Amin join a national dialogue on countering terrorism in Yogyakarta, December 2017. [Kusumasari Ayuningtyas/BenarNews]

 
Removing a stigma
In'am said he also concocted the coffee shop idea to remove a public stigma cast on him after his brother's death along with his past links as a childhood friend of the three men involved in those bombings on Bali island 16 years ago.
"My business fell when Amrozi was arrested [in 2002]. Then, I set up this coffee shop," In'am said.
Amrozi was executed in November 2008 together with his two brothers, Ali Imron, Ali Ghufron (alias Mukhlas), who were members of al-Qaida-affiliated Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the group blamed for the bombings.
At that time, In'am was a successful construction entrepreneur. His closeness to the three bombers raised public suspicion that he had helped fund the bombings, Indonesia's deadliest terrorist attack.
"I was close to them," he admitted. "One of Amrozi's children even lived with me when Amrozi was arrested, but I had no involvement, whatsoever, with what they did."
"I knew them because we were neighbors in Lamongan and friends since childhood," he said, referring to the regency in East Java province, where the Bali bombers came from.
But as In'am took steps to clear his name, he received another piece of shocking news: Wildan Mukhollad, his younger brother who had studied at Al Azhar University in Egypt, killed himself during a suicide-bombing mission in Iraq in February 2014.
"I could not believe it," he said. "I was suspicious of him being a terrorist, but I never thought he would go that far."
In'am said his suspicion began when his brother stopped contacting him in his second year in Egypt.
"It is bitter and sad to remember," he said. "It is like a nightmare."
He said the horrific past transformed him.
"This all makes me what I am now; partnering with police and making approaches to make convicted terrorist prisoners get back into society," he said.
In'am moved to Yogyakarta and in 2015 started the Gandroeng Kopi café, which carries the slogan "the real drinking coffee experience."
'Don't give them fish'
In'am said he knew well that when terror convicts finish serving their prison terms, they need a source of income to support themselves.
"They certainly need money, but don't give them the money they want. We must teach them how to fish, but don't give them fish," he said. "We have to train them to do jobs that suit their interests to make money."
His café serves as a place for ex-convicts to have the in-job training they need before rejoining society, he said.
Yulianto, the Yogyakarta provincial police spokesman, applauded In'am's efforts at partnering with police and the government in disseminating messages aimed at countering radicalism.
"His role is primarily in providing understanding to the community not to get trapped into radicalism and not to become a terrorist, as well as providing help if somebody becomes a victim," Yulianto told BenarNews.
"In'am is not radical," he said. "That can be seen from his behavior, which is very anti-radical and anti-terrorist."
Choose this kind of jihad: brother of Bali bombers
In'am's coffee shop has even inspired Ali Fauzi to think about starting his own coffee shop. The thought was percolating in his mind, he said, because he saw how In'am's shop was effectively helping motivate ex-cons to lead a peaceful life.
More ex-convicts should choose this kind of jihad, Ali Fauzi said.
In'am, upon hearing Ali's comments, agreed, explaining that the term "Gandroeng" could also be translated as "love" in Javanese.
Anyone who tries his coffee will forget the bitterness of the past, he said, stabbing the air with his finger while pointing at the sign on the wall.
"Whoever drinks coffee, his loneliness is forgiven," it said.


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BENARNEWS- A Jakarta court Friday sentenced the de facto leader of Islamic State's Indonesian branch to death after finding him guilty of ordering militants to launch several terror attacks since 2016.
Aman Abdurrahman (alias Oman Rachman), 46, widely described as Indonesia's most influential pro-Islamic State (IS) ideologue, did not say a word. But he stood up from his seat, then knelt and bowed his head to the floor as soon as a judge finished reading out the verdict.
"The defendant was legally and convincingly found guilty of perpetrating terrorism on two charges," Presiding Judge Akhmad Jaini said at the South Jakarta District Court.
Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for the radical cleric whom they had accused of masterminding deadly terror attacks during the past two years from behind bars, while he was serving time for an earlier conviction.
"The defendant played an important role by delivering online sermons to incite his followers to carry out suicide bombings that claimed lives," judge Akhmad said. "Therefore he has to take responsibility of his actions."
Aman denied the charges against him during his testimony in April this year. His lawyer, Asludin Hatjani, described the ruling as "unfair" and said prosecutors did not provide evidence linking the cleric to terror attacks.
Prosecutors said Aman had asked a known militant leader to visit him at a maximum security prison in Cilacap, Central Java in late 2015. During their meeting, according to prosecutors, Aman ordered supporters to launch terror strikes, saying he had received instructions from IS leaders in Syria to emulate attacks carried out by IS supporters in Paris in November 2015.
On Jan. 14, 2016, militants launched gun and bomb attacks near a shopping center and a coffee shop in Central Jakarta. The attacks, the first terror strike claimed by IS in Southeast Asia, killed eight including four militants.
Prosecutors said Aman had also inspired militants in a suicide attack that killed three police officers at a bus station in Jakarta last year, as well as a Molotov cocktail blast that killed a 2-year-old and injured three other children at a church in East Kalimantan province in November 2016.
During Friday's courtroom deliberations, hundreds of counterterrorism police secured the courthouse in South Jakarta.
Commandos wore black body armor and carried assault rifles. They were heard saying "praise be to God" after the verdict was announced.

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Police officers take positions outside the courtroom as Aman Abdurrahman awaits sentencing at a South Jakarta court, June 22, 2018. [Arie Firdaus/BenarNews]

 
Third terror-related conviction
Friday's verdict marked Aman's third terrorism conviction. He had previously been sentenced in 2005, after an explosive device detonated in his residence, and again in 2010, for involvement in a terrorism training camp in the mountains of Aceh province.
Police officers formed a barricade around Aman as they took him out of the courtroom. His lawyer, Asludin Hatjani, said he had met the cleric Friday morning before the sentencing and his client had told him that he planned to kneel after the sentencing.
"He didn't tell me why. But he only told me that he would go down on his knees and prostrate himself if he was sentenced to death, and he did that," Asludin told journalists after the verdict and sentence were handed down.
Aman has a right to appeal, but Asludin said he would consult with his client to determine his next legal move.
The nation last carried out capital punishment for terrorism convicts in 2008, when three Bali bombers were put to death by firing squad.
Indonesia, the most populous Muslim-majority nation, suffered its worst terror attack in 2002 when militants detonated bombs on the island of Bali, killing 202 people.
'De facto leader of IS in Indonesia'
In January 2017, the U.S. government designated Aman a "global terrorist," alleging he had founded the militant group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), composed of two dozen pro-IS groups. American officials have also described him as "the de facto leader of IS supporters in Indonesia."
JAD was also involved in suicide bombings last month in Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city, authorities said, but Aman has not been charged in those attacks. These involved three families, including girls aged 12 and nine, who allegedly blew themselves up, officials said.
Twenty-seven people died, including 13 suspects.
During Aman's latest trial, prosecutors presented as evidence Aman's books and other writings known to have influenced militant groups.
"There are orders to carry out jihad there," prosecutor Mayasari told the court in April.
'Influenced thousands'
Aman's trial spotlighted the loopholes in Indonesia's overcrowded prison system, where terrorism plots are hatched and banned materials are smuggled in with ease, security analysts said.
"No question that Aman Abdurrahman is Indonesia's most important extremist ideologue, whose writings and sermons, disseminated online and over social media, influenced thousands," Sidney Jones, director of the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), told BenarNews in April.
Aman's ability to reach out to his followers declined, as did his access to news about developments, when prison officials placed him in an isolation cell and took away his mobile phone after the January 2016 Jakarta attacks, Jones said.
Meanwhile, the national police force is "on alert potential threats" from terrorists, said spokesman Yusri Yunus.
"We continue to be vigilant," he told BenarNews on Friday. "We continue to coordinate with other prevention agencies."
Adhe Bhakti, an analyst at the Center for Radicalization and De-radicalization Studies in Jakarta, said police should beef up security and the monitoring of militant activity after Aman's trial.
"We have to watch out for revenge, especially after a judge sentences to death the person they [militants] really revered as their leader," he said. "They have been inspired by his words."


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BENARNEWS- Gunmen killed three civilians and injured two others Monday soon after shooting at a plane carrying police who were to oversee elections later this week in a remote area of eastern Indonesia's Papua province, officials said.
Papua police spokesman Ahmad Mustafa Kamal said the civilians, identified as vendors, were killed after the plane landed in the Keneyam airport in Nduga district. The pilot was one of the two people who were injured.
"We could not confirm the number of victims in detail as communication is difficult there," Kamal told reporters in the provincial capital, Jayapura.
Police alleged that the attackers were members of the "Armed Civilians Criminal Group" (KKB) – the name Indonesian police use for the Free Papua Organization (OPM), an independence movement group.
"They divided themselves into two groups. One went into the hills and the other went to the outskirts of the airport close to community activities where they shot the civilians," Kamal said.
Army spokesman Col. Muhammad Aidi also named KKB as the attackers.
Papua, a former Dutch colony, has been the scene of insurgent attacks since it was absorbed into Indonesia in 1969. The U.S.-based mining giant, Freeport-McMoran, operates the Grasberg gold and copper mining complex in the province.
Second plane attack
The plane carrying 15 police mobile brigade personnel, who were assigned to a security detail during regional elections on Wednesday, departed from Papua's Wamena airport.
The shooting was the second targeting an airplane in Papua in three days.
On Friday, a Dimonim Air plane carrying 16 civilian passengers and a police officer was shot at while landing at the same airport, injuring its co-pilot. No group has claimed responsibility for the aircraft shootings.
Emus Gwijangge, a member of the Papuan People's Legislative Assembly (DPRP), told BenarNews he had not been able to confirm the deaths.
"Yes, there was the shooting of the plane. I am still gathering more information about the casualties," he said.
Not all attackers were armed with guns, according to a source who asked to remain anonymous.
"There are many people carrying arrows, axes and spears," the source said.
Those killed were identified as migrant traders from South Sulawesi province, including a husband and wife, who were shot and stabbed as the attackers fled the airport, the Associated Press reported.
The company that operates planes transporting ballots and other election materials has considered stopping flights until safety can be assured, Wamena Airport official Freddy Halattu said.
"They will stop flying to some locations if security is not guaranteed," he told reporters at on Monday.


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BENARNEWS-Millions of Indonesians will vote in regional polls Wednesday that are seen as a critical warmup for presidential and legislative elections next year.
Up to 152 million voters are eligible to choose 17 governors, 39 mayors and 115 district chiefs in races in various parts of the archipelago, ranging from Papua, Indonesia's easternmost province on New Guinea island, to westernmost Aceh on the tip of Sumatra.
With contests in Indonesia's most densely populated regions representing 82 percent of its electorate, the June 27 polls are a key test for political parties ahead of national elections, analysts say.
"Certainly regional election results will influence the results for political parties in next year's elections," political expert Sirodjudin Abbas told BenarNews.
Three provinces –West Java, Central Java, and East Java – are expected to generate the most votes in Wednesday's elections. West Java tops the list with 31.7 million voters, followed by East Java (30.1 million) and Central Java (27 million).
Wednesday's polling completes a cycle of local elections, with previous instalments in 2015 and 2017, and clears the way for national elections on April 17 next year, when Indonesians will vote for president and their representatives in the national legislature. Presidential candidates must register by August; campaigning starts in late September.
More than 186 million Indonesians are eligible to cast votes in the 2019 presidential election, with one declared candidate so far – Prabowo Subianto of the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), who was the losing candidate in the 2014 election.
President Joko Widodo is widely expected to seek a second five-year term. But none of Indonesia's 20 currently registered parties meets the threshold of 112 seats in parliament to nominate a candidate on its own, so both candidates need allies.
"A political party's solidity and ability will be put to the test this year. This will be a warmup for the legislative and presidential elections," said Sirodjudin who also serves as program director of Saiful Mudjani Research and Consulting (SMRC).
Ray Rangkuti, a political expert from election watchdog Lingkar Madani, said voters in North Sumatra and South Sulawesi would also play a key role in next year's elections.
"Potential voters in both provinces are considerable. The parties even sent representatives from headquarters" to boost campaigning, Ray told BenarNews.
Djarot Saiful Hidayat, the running mate of former Jakarta Gov. Basuki Tjahaja "Ahok" Purnama in the 2017 election, is a candidate for governor of North Sumatra. Djarot earlier served as mayor of Blitar, East Java, then as deputy governor of Jakarta.
"I moved to North Sumatra to do jihad against corruption, poverty, ignorance, and drug abuse," the Indonesian media outlet Okezone quoted Djarot as saying.
Meanwhile, former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, whose Democratic Party has yet to declare its political alliance, staged a press conference over the weekend to question whether Indonesian security forces were maintaining professional neutrality in the regional elections.
"I have heard stories about a number of police, military, and intelligence personnel taking sides ahead of the elections. They're not a hoax," the former president told members of the press in Bogor, West Java, without giving concrete details.
His son, Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono, was a contender for Jakarta governor in 2017 but lost in a first round of voting after a brutal race marked by massive rallies to demand the arrest of the non-Muslim incumbent, Ahok, who was ultimately tried and convicted of blasphemy.
Komarudin Watubun, chairman of Jokowi's Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), dismissed the allegations.
"SBY's era of political melodrama is over and out of date," he said, using a popular shorthand for the former leader.
On alert
In the days leading up to Wednesday's polls, Indonesian police have been on alert for militant groups potentially targeting the elections, after a spate of terrorist violence last month that included suicide bombings at three churches and a police station in Indonesia's second largest city, Surabaya.
A message has circulated on extremist networks calling for attacks on polling stations, CNN Indonesian quoted Riau police chief Nandang as saying. The Sumatran province was the site of a terror attack in mid-May that saw four suspects and one policemen killed at provincial police headquarters.
On Saturday, police shot dead two terror suspects and arrested another in West Java. The anti-terror squad Densus 88 also killed a terror suspect in Subang, West Java, on Friday and found an explosive device in the suspect's bag, authorities said.
National Police spokesman Mohammad Iqbal said the suspects were part of the Islamic State-linked terror group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) and intended to disrupt local elections.
"We continue to anticipate any threat and maintain security ahead of the elections. The arrests were a precautionary measure to secure the elections," Iqbal told BenarNews.
On Monday, National Police Chief Tito Karnavian told reporters in Jakarta that the Densus 88 had arrested 13 suspected militants who were allegedly planning to carry out attacks ahead of regional elections. He did not elaborate on where and when the arrests took place.
Fundraising
Although presidential campaigning does not officially start until late September, Prabowo, the Gerindra candidate, made an unprecedented fundraising appeal to his supporters via Facebook late last week.
The former special forces (Kopassus) commander said he had prepared a bank account ready to receive donations from supporters.
"It doesn't matter how much you can contribute. If you, let's say, donate 5,000 rupiah, we thank you. If you can help more –10,000 or 20,000 rupiah – it will be helpful," Prabowo said.
"Think about it, with 20,000 rupiah you can buy a pack of cigarettes and two packs of instant noodles. With the amount of money, you have contributed in the fight to change the nation's future," he said.
The prospect of a rematch between old rivals got a gust of interest earlier this month when 74-year-old Amien Rais, a hero of the movement that toppled dictator Suharto 20 years ago, said he was thinking of entering the race, inspired by Mahathir Mohamad's victory in Malaysia last month.
Other potential presidential candidates include former Armed Forces chief Gatot Nurmantyo and Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan.
Rina Chadijah in Jakarta and Kusumasari Ayuningtyas in Central Java contributed to this report.
CORRECTION: An earlier version gave a wrong date, June 26, for the regional elections.


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BENARNEWS- Results of regional elections in Indonesia appear to bode well for President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo in a presidential campaign set to begin later this year, although the party of challenger Prabowo Subianto is gaining ground, analysts said Thursday.
Voters chose gubernatorial candidates allied with the incumbent president in most of Indonesia's most populated provinces – including West Java, Central Java, East Java, and South Sulawesi – quick counts by polling organizations released after Wednesday's polls showed. Official results will be released July 9.
"Ridwan Kamil yesterday expressed support for Jokowi in 2019," said Asep Warlan Yusuf, a political analyst at Parahyangan University in Bandung. "This has become political capital for Jokowi," he told BenarNews
Ridwan, representing three minor political parties, is the unofficial governor-elect of Indonesia's most populous province, West Java, with 31.7 million voters.
The former mayor of Bandung narrowly defeated Sudrajat, the candidate supported by Prabowo's party, 32 percent to 29 percent, in a field with four teams competing, according to the quick counts.
West Java had been seen as the base of support for the Greater Indonesia Party (Gerindra) and its sole ally to date, the conservative Muslim Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).
Gaining ground
Yet victory for Jokowi in the province and elsewhere in April 2019 is not assured, according to Adi Prayitno, executive director of Indonesian Political Parameter.
Initials surveys showed Sudrajat and running mate Ahmad Syaiku winning only nine percent of the vote, so the outcome of 29 percent was surprising, Adi said.
In Central Java, a Jokowi stronghold with 27 million voters, Sudirman Said, the candidate supported by opposition parties put up a stiff challenge to incumbent Ganjar Pranowo. Ganjar ultimately held on to power, taking 58 percent of votes to Sudirman's 41 percent.
"This proves that Gerindra's political machine is working," he said.
Gerindra candidate Edy Rahmayadi won in North Sumatra, Indonesia's fourth largest province, beating rival Djarot Saiful Hidayat, who had served as deputy governor of Jakarta under Basuki Tjahaja "Ahok" Purnama, quick counts showed.
Campaigning officially kicks off in late September ahead of an April 17, 2019 national election in which more than 186 million Indonesians will have the opportunity to vote for president and their representatives in the national parliament.
Although he has not made any public statement about it, Jokowi is widely expected to seek a second five-year term. His only declared challenger thus far is Prabowo.
None of Indonesia's 20 currently registered parties meets the threshold of 112 seats in parliament to nominate a candidate on its own, so both candidates need allies.
Results of Wednesday's voting may discourage other candidates from entering the race, according to Muradi, a political expert at Padjadjaran University in West Java.
He noted that the candidate backed by former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, which has yet to form allegiances, was defeated in West Java.
"If the Democrats had won, the party would think it has big voters in West Java and would dare to lobby other parties to bring their own candidates in the presidential election and change the 2019 political map," Muradi told BenarNews.

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A woman checks in to vote at a polling station in Padang, West Sumatra, June 27, 2018. [M. Sulthan Azzam/BenarNews]

 
Mostly peaceful
On Wednesday, up to 152 million voters were eligible to choose 17 governors, 39 mayors and 115 district chiefs in races in various parts of the archipelago, ranging from Papua, Indonesia's easternmost province on New Guinea island, to westernmost Aceh on the tip of Sumatra. Indonesia's election commission has not yet released voter turnout figures.
Indonesia has been on edge following a string of terrorist attacks in May including suicide bombings at churches and a police station in Surabaya. But despite warnings that extremists might target voting booths, and following a rash of arrests in recent days, voting unfolded mostly peacefully across Indonesia.
The exception was in restive Papua, where gunmen ambushed a group of officials who were about to go home after monitoring voting in a district of remote Puncak Jaya regency. Two police officers and a sub-district chief were shot dead, police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar told reporters in the provincial capital, Jayapura, on Thursday.
On Monday, gunmen killed three civilians and injured two others soon after shooting at a plane in Keneyam airport in Nduga regency – the same airport where gunmen shot at a plane three days earlier, injuring the co-pilot. No group has claimed responsibility for the aircraft shootings.
A low-level secessionist movement has simmered for decades in Papua and West Papua, Indonesia's easternmost provinces, which are among its poorest and least developed.


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BENARNEWS- A plan by heads of Indonesian universities to begin surveillance on campuses in order to detect extremist ideology and behavior could threaten free speech and learning, academics and students told BenarNews.
At a meeting in Jakarta earlier this week officials in charge of 122 state universities discussed collaborating with the national counterterror agency (BNPT) to establish an intelligence body or presence to monitor and detect signs of radical behavior and ideology at the nation's campuses, according to local reports.
"We have to keep freedom of expression and creativity on the campus. If not there, where else?" said Ali Wibisono, a lecturer on terrorism and international security at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta.
"I cannot see any strong country in the world whose counterterrorism policy is effective by controlling its universities," he told BenarNews.
Obed Kresna Widyapratistha, the president of the student executive board at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, echoed that sentiment.
"In the academic environment, we should be free to express our thoughts, including political opinions. It should not restrain students' academic freedom to express opinions, critical thinking and to organize," he said.
The meeting of university rectors took place after the BNPT revealed last month that seven state universities, which are among the country's top institutions of higher learning, had been exposed to extremist ideology. These campuses include the University of Indonesia, the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Bogor Agricultural University in West Java and Airlangga University in Surabaya, BNPT reported.
But it remains unclear to what extent BNPT is involved in the plan to create an intelligence presence on university campuses.
Dwia Aries Tina Pulubuhu, the rector of Hasanuddin University in Makassar, in South Sulawesi province, who also serves as president of the Indonesian Rectors' Forum, said the on-campus intelligence apparatus would operate under the authority of the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education.
"The program methodology is being planned," she told BenarNews, adding that until now university officials tended to learn of student arrests and proliferation of violent ideology on campus from the media, not from the BNPT. "So we need some kinds of intel on campus," she said.
The executive boards of student bodies could be useful in helping detect radical infiltration on university campuses, she added.
"They can report to BNPT if there are students or academic community members who have links to terror networks or are exposed to terrorism," Dwia said.
The ministry followed up Monday's meeting by drafting guidelines for preventing the spread of extremist ideologies on campuses and forming a task force to monitor radical activities at universities, officials said.
Responding to criticism that such a move could impinge on free speech and learning, Intan Ahmad, the ministry's director general of learning and student affairs, issued a statement suggesting this was being done in the interest of national security.
"Academic freedom should not threaten the existence of the nation and the state's sovereignty," he said in a written statement.
In recent weeks, Indonesia has been on edge following a spate of suicide bombings and other attacks carried out in Surabaya and other places by a home-grown group linked to the so-called Islamic State, Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD).
UN conference
According to a report in the Singapore Straits Times, BNPT chief Suhardi Alius attended Monday's meeting at the higher education ministry.
"We hope this meeting will bring the same understanding about the situation and the same approach in handling radicalism on campuses," the newspaper quoted him as telling university officials.
Suhardi could not be reached for comment on Friday.
The BNPT chief was in New York, where he was attending a high-level U.N. conference on counterterrorism.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres convened the meeting, in an effort to deepen international cooperation in the fight against terror. It drew more than 100 delegations from member-state capitals, led largely by chiefs of counter-terrorist agencies from across the globe, U.N. officials said.
"Today, the frontline against terrorism is increasingly in cyberspace. Terrorists are exploiting social media, encrypted communications and the dark web to spread propaganda, recruit new followers and coordinate attacks," the secretary-general said Thursday as he opened the meeting at the U.N. General Assembly.
"The military defeat of ISIL in Iraq and Syria last year means foreign terrorist fighters are on the move, returning home or relocating to other theaters of conflict," he added, using a different acronym for Islamic State.
In remarks to the gathering, Suhardi stressed "the role and importance of youth in preventing terrorism including counter radicalization efforts," according to a BNPT statement sent to BenarNews by an official at the Indonesian Embassy in Washington.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia's anti-corruption agency detained Aceh governor Irwandi Yusuf on Thursday after arresting him on suspicion that he had accepted illegal fees for infrastructure and other projects funded by the national government.
Irwandi, former leader of the separatist rebel group Aceh Movement (GAM), became the second governor of the northwestern province to face corruption charges after Abdullah Puteh, who was sentenced to jail for 10 years in 2005.
Agents from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) arrested Irwandi on Tuesday evening and flew him to the capital Jakarta with three other suspects, officials said.
"There were 10 people arrested during the operation, including two regional heads and some other individuals," KPK spokesman Febri Diansyah said in a statement.
During the arrest, Febri said, investigators confiscated millions of rupiah, believed to be part of the illegal fees received by Irwandi.
Irwandi was named a graft suspect after he allegedly accepted 500 million rupiah (U.S. $34,794) from Ahmadi, the regent of Bener Meriah who uses only one name. The money was part of a "commitment fee" related to infrastructure projects that would be funded through Aceh's autonomy fund, KPK deputy chairwoman Basaria Panjaitan told reporters.
Ahmadi was arrested with Irwandi's close associates, Hendri Yuzal and Syaiful Bahri, officials said. It was not immediately clear when Irwandi and the other suspects would be charged in court.
Irwandi denied the allegations on Thursday.
"I did not ask for a gift, I never asked people to ask for a gift. Neither have I accepted any commitment fee," Irwandi, who was wearing an orange prison shirt, told reporters at KPK headquarters. "I did not receive money."
Basaria said in a statement that Irwandi received 8 percent as "commitment fee" from contractors for road building and other projects related to education and health. A budget of 8 trillion rupiah (more than U.S. $550 million) had been allocated for those projects, Basaria said.
Irwandi was serving a prison term for treason in December 2004 when a magnitude 9.2 earthquake struck off Aceh and unleashed a tsunami, killing more than 170,000 people. Irwandi, then 44, climbed a metal pole, punched a hole through his asbestos ceiling and fled, according to the nonprofit Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN).
Irwandi later moved to Jakarta and participated in the historic Helsinki Agreement that ended decades of conflict in Aceh, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG). Irwandi became the first governor of Aceh directly elected by the Acehnese people. He ran for governor and won as an independent candidate, holding office from 2007 to 2012, ICG said.
The former separatist leader, backed by the Democratic Party and several smaller parties, was re-elected as governor in 2017 under the banner of the National Aceh Party (PNA).
Aceh, on the island of Sumatra, is the only province in Indonesia where Sharia law has been partially implemented since 2001. It also enjoys a degree of autonomy. Sharia law in the province was guaranteed as part of a peace deal that ended a decades-old conflict between the Indonesian government and GAM rebels.
Local newspapers quoted KPK officials as saying that Irwandi would be prosecuted under Indonesian law, rather than Islamic law, which imposes public caning to punish crimes such as theft, gambling and adultery.
Under Islamic law, stealing or theft is punishable by amputating a hand, but Aceh does not apply full sharia law, according to the Jakarta Post. Aceh's sharia law covers only those related to Islamic morality, such as adultery, premarital sex and male homosexuality, the newspaper said.
In April this year, Irwandi sought to dampen international criticism by deciding to move public canings indoors and regulate who can attend.
Aceh is "arguably the most corrupt province in one of the world's most corrupt countries," according to a 2005 report from New York-based magazine The New Republic, which quoted graft watchdog Transparency International as placing Indonesia alongside the Democratic Republic of Congo, a war-ravaged dictatorship, near the bottom of its list of most corrupt nations.
Puteh, the previous Aceh governor to face corruption charges, was sentenced for inflating the price of a Russian helicopter he bought with state money. Prosecutors said he siphoned off the difference.
Irwandi's arrest shocks other officials
The alleged corruption case involving Irwandi shocked many who came to know him as a purveyor of clean governance.
Indonesia's Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo said that he often communicated with Irwandi. He described the governor as "very strict" on budgetary issues.
"He insisted on Aceh's budgetary issue as something that is not to be compromised. It is strict and efficient," Tjahjo told reporters Thursday. "How come this happened?"


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BENARNEWS- Official results of regional elections held in June and released Monday should boost Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo in his bid for a second term even though his ruling party suffered some losses, analysts said.
Jokowi is expected to be aided by results in key provinces on Java island, home to more than half of Indonesia's 260 million people. Voters went to the polls on June 27 to elect governors, regency chiefs and mayors.
Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil won the West Java gubernatorial election, securing 33 percent of the vote, while incumbent Ganjar Pranowo won a second term as governor of Central Java province with 59 percent, data from the General Election Commission showed. Jokowi's former minister of social affairs, Khofifah Indar Parawansa, received 53 percent of the vote of East Java.
"The results of these elections are very good for Jokowi," said Philips Vermonte, executive director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"The Jokowi brand is still strong."
Philips said Ridwan and Khofifah were not backed by Jokowi's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), but expressed support for his re-election bid next year. He said other results could hurt PDIP even though it is led by the nation's frontrunner.
"The trend isn't too optimistic for PDIP because they lost key provinces," he said, adding that the party's candidate failed to win last year's gubernatorial election in Jakarta.
Opposition leaders, meanwhile, saw some positive results.
Even in Central Java, the hotbed of PDIP supporters, main opposition party Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) candidate Sudirman Said made a strong showing at 41 percent, despite pre-election surveys predicting he would get less than 10 percent of the vote.
Earlier this year, (Gerindra) officially endorsed Prabowo Subianto, a retired lieutenant general with the Army special forces (Kopassus), to challenge Jokowi in the presidential election set for April 17, 2019. The race would be a rematch as Jokowi defeated Prabowo by more than 6 percentage points in 2014.
2019 election
Another analyst said candidates should not read too much into the latest totals to predict the 2019 parliamentary and presidential elections.
"Indonesian politics is very fluid, and alliances are not based on ideologies, but based on expediency and pragmatism," Emrus Sihombing, a political analyst at Pelita Harapan University, told BenarNews. "But in simple terms, the victories of Ganjar, Khofifah and Ridwan could translate to support for Jokowi and Java is home to about 60 percent of Indonesia's population."
Jokowi has yet to name his running mate and coalition party leaders are jockeying to be the vice-presidential candidate.
Johnny G. Plate, secretary greneral of the National Democratic Party, a member of the ruling coalition, said Jokowi's eventual running mate could be a surprise.
"Hint: He or she will be gladly accepted by the coalition parties," Johnny told news portal Detik.com.
PDIP chairman Megawati Soekarnoputri said a date had not been set for Jokowi to name a running-mate.
"The announcement will be made when the moment is right, and the weather is bright. Just wait and be patient," she said.
Challenges
Last month's election did not go off without any hitches. The Constitutional Court website showed 22 cases of challenges to results that were lodged as of Monday, but none challenged gubernatorial results in West Java, Central Java and East Java provinces.
Court spokesman Fajar Laksano declined to say when the cases would be heard. "We have 45 days to process them," he said.
Ahmad Syamsudin in Jakarta contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Forty percent of mosques and worship spaces at state-owned enterprises and government institutions in Jakarta are promoting radical sermons, according to a new study by an Indonesian organization representing Islamic boarding schools.
Twenty-one mosques at state-run companies and 12 at buildings owned by government ministries, among others, had engaged in discussing radical ideas, such as the creation of a caliphate, Agus Muhammad, head of the supervisory board at the Association of Islamic Boarding Schools and Society Development (P3M), told reporters.
"It can be considered a red alert as far as mosques at the state-owned companies are concerned," he said.
"We hope that the DMI looks deeper into these findings and takes necessary action," he added, referring to the powerful Indonesian Mosque Council.
The study, conducted by P3M and the nongovernmental organization Rumah Kebangsaan, analyzed 274 videos and hundreds of audio recordings taken by volunteers at 100 mosques from Sept. 29 to Oct. 21 last year, Agus said during a news conference in Jakarta on Sunday.
"We defined radicalism as ideas that called for fundamental changes," Agus said.
The researchers also studied Friday bulletins and leaflets at the mosques, he said.
But Imam Addaruquthni, secretary-general of the DMI, dismissed the significance of the report.
"Radical can mean critical [of the government] ... but that doesn't mean that they harbor intentions to undermine or threaten the state," he told BenarNews on Monday. "They may be radical in criticizing the government, because there are injustices to be critical about."
There are about 800,000 mosques in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, which has a population of about 262 million. But those places of worship, spread across a nation of about 18,000 islands, are not as big as those in Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries.
Of the 41 out of 100 mosques monitored to have espoused extremist views, 17 were considered highly radical, with preachers provoking their congregations to carry out "intolerant acts," Agus said, without elaborating.
Abdul Manan Ghani, chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country's largest Muslim organization, expressed concern about the findings and called for closer government supervision of mosques.
"Those mosques are probably funded by the state but are being used to promote intolerance," Abdul Manan told the same news conference at NU headquarters in Jakarta.
Steps taken after complaints
Mastuki, a spokesman for the Religious Affairs Ministry, said officials took steps last year after receiving complaints from the public about sermons that had the potential to foment unrest.
"Maybe radical sermons were not completely eradicated at that time. There should be a new survey this year and things probably have changed," he told BenarNews.
Mastuki said a previous survey had helped the government identify problems.
"We are considering issuing a code of ethics for public preachers from all religions. We are consulting mass organizations and we are having internal discussions on this issue," he said.
Evidence that evolving religious conservatism and intolerance is changing the character of the Indonesian society was highlighted in April this year when the head of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) released results of a 2017 survey. It showed that 39 percent of college students had been exposed to radical ideas.
"This condition exists in 15 Indonesian provinces and grabbed our attention of radical movement," Budi Gunawan said during a lecture at a college seminar in Semarang, Central Java.
As a result of that report, heads of Indonesian universities in June 2018 discussed a plan to begin collaborating with the national counterterror agency (BNPT) to establish an intelligence body that would monitor surveillance on campuses in order to detect extremist ideology and behavior.
But opponents of that plan warned it could stifle free speech and learning on campuses.
"We have to keep freedom of expression and creativity on the campus. If not there, where else?" said Ali Wibisono, a lecturer on terrorism and international security at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta, told BenarNews.
"I cannot see any strong country in the world whose counterterrorism policy is effective by controlling its universities," he said.


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BENARNEWS- A Malaysian lawyer who is visiting Indonesia and represents a local woman charged with killing the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Kuala Lumpur last year expressed confidence Wednesday that she would be acquitted.
Indonesian citizen Siti Aisyah and co-defendant Doan Thi Huong, a Vietnamese national, are standing trial in Malaysia for allegedly killing Kim Jong Nam in a chemical weapon attack at a Kuala Lumpur airport on Feb. 13, 2017. But Siti's attorney, Gooi Soon Seng, claimed the evidence against his client was flimsy.
"I'm very sure that Siti Aisyah will be found not guilty. I will be very disappointed if the judges decide otherwise," Gooi told reporters in Jakarta.
Gooi said the prosecution's efforts to link Aisyah to the killing were weak.
He said a nurse who treated Kim at the airport clinic said he told staff that he had been attacked by a woman, contradicting statements made by security guards in the terminal who had said that two women were involved. In addition, no traces of VX, a nerve agent classified as an internationally banned chemical weapon, were found on Aisyah's nails.
No motive has been established for the murder, the Malaysian lawyer noted.
"How can Siti be convicted while four other suspects remain at large and are not charged," he said, referring to four North Korean men, who, Malaysian authorities said, were believed to be involved in the killing and fled the country within hours of the attack.
Prosecutors said Siti and Doan, who could face death sentences if convicted, knew they were handling VX when they accosted Kim Jong Nam in the departure terminal at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 and smeared the substance on his face.
Both women have pleaded not guilty, insisting they were duped by the men into believing that they were being paid to perform a video prank.
Siti, a Jakarta resident in her mid-20s, is a divorced mother of a young boy. Her parents are from nearby West Java province.
Malaysian police said she and Doan arrived in Malaysia days before Kim was killed, but both previously worked there. Siti had been employed as a worker at a local spa.
The prosecution portion of the case concluded June 28 and the court is scheduled to rule on Aug. 16.
"If it is ruled that there's a prima facie case, they will proceed with the defense. If not, Siti Aisyah must be acquitted," said Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, director for the protection of citizens at the Indonesian Foreign Ministry.
Lalu said he expected the case could extend into next year if the court rules that the defense must proceed.
Meanwhile, Savitri Wisnuwardhani, the national coordinator of the Indonesian Network of Migrant Workers, called Siti a victim.
"Most people, including Siti, won't be able to distinguish VX from baby oil," she said. "The government must get to the bottom of the truth."


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia will pay almost U.S. $4 billion to acquire a majority stake in the world's second-biggest copper mine located in eastern Papua province, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said Thursday, confirming a tentative deal with an American mining firm that caps years of wrangling over mining rights for the site.
The deal with Freeport McMoRan is expected to boost Jokowi's nationalist credentials ahead of the 2019 elections when he is likely to seek a second term in office, supporters told BenarNews. Opponents, on the other hand, describe it as morally and legally flawed.
Jokowi called the deal a leap forward.
"For 3½ years we had tough negotiations and the past 1½ years were even more intense," he told reporters.
"We hope in the future we will have bigger revenue from tax, royalties and dividends," he said. "Our national interests should come first."
Separately, Freeport and Indonesian officials told a news conference that under the agreement formalized after complex discussions, state-owned PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminum, or Inalum, would pay $3.85 billion for 51 percent of Grasberg mine, Freeport's local unit.
The Indonesian government currently has a 9-percent stake.
Freeport officials said many issues must be resolved, including the U.S.-based company's long-term rights in the country, an agreement on the disposal of tailings waste and provisions allowing it to operate its flagship copper-and-gold mine even when it is no longer the majority owner.
Grasberg mine near Puncak Jaya, the highest mountain in Papua, has about 20,000 employees.
In a statement issued Thursday, Freeport emphasized it expects to remain in charge of operations in the mining complex, regardless of its stake after the conclusion of the divestment, which it expects to take place in the second half of this year.
In August 2017, the company said it was giving up a majority of its ownership in exchange for being allowed to operate the Indonesian mining complex until 2041.
After that announcement, the Amungme and Kamoro tribe communities met with Jokowi in Jakarta to express their concerns.

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Freeport McMoRan's gigantic Grasberg mine lies in the mountains of eastern Indonesia's remote province of Papua, Aug.16, 2013. [AFP]

 
CEO lists benefits
The agreement would provide direct benefits to the local and central governments, Richard Adkerson, Freeport McMoRan's CEO, told the news conference. Including dividends to Inalum, he said, those benefits would be between $60 billion and $90 billion.
As part of the agreement, Freeport agreed to construct a smelter in Indonesia by 2022. Adkerson has previously estimated that smelter to cost $2 billion.
Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Inalum's president-director, told reporters the tentative agreement would be beneficial to the country.
"We stand to get half of the company's average annual profit, which is U.S. $2 billion a year," he said.
Under the deal, the government of Papua province will also get a 10-percent stake in Freeport, a move that Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said could help improve the welfare of Papuans.
Jokowi has visited Papua, a region that is one of Indonesia's poorest with low literacy rates, at least eight times since taking office in 2014. The president's nationalistic stance is popular in the province amid a clamor for the country to have more control of its vast resources.
The agreement drew mixed reactions.
"Thank God. After 50 years being controlled by foreigners, Freeport is back in the embrace of motherland in July 2018," popular musician Addie MS said on Twitter. "Thank you President Jokowi and all the ministers who have fought for 3.5 years."
But Merah Johansyah, an activist with the Mining Advocacy Network, a non-governmental organization, said the agreement was "morally and legally flawed" because Papuans were not given a say during the deal negotiations.
"It was conducted by the government – represented by the finance ministry, energy ministry and the state enterprise ministry – and Freeport," he told BenarNews.
"The most important component, which is the people of Papua, were left out," he said. "Whether the people still need the presence of Freeport is up to Papuans. There should be a referendum on the existence of Freeport."
Foreign media access is restricted in Papua, a former Dutch colony that was absorbed into Indonesia in 1969 after a controversial referendum. The region has been home to a low-level armed separatist movement, the Organisasi Papua Merdeka, for decades. That rebel group and Indonesian security forces are both guilty of human rights abuses, rights groups said.
Marwan Batubara, executive director of Indonesian Resources Studies, told BenarNews the price of the controlling stake was too high.
"The price was agreed on the condition that the contact is extended to 2041, while the power to extend it is in our hands. We should have used that power to our benefit," he said.
Zahara Tiba in Jakarta contributed to this report.

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BENARNEWS- An Indonesian runner who could barely afford shoes and lived in a shanty fired up celebrations on Friday after he bagged the world junior sprint crown in Finland, in an unprecedented victory that captured his countrymen's emotions.
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said Lalu Muhammad Zohri, 18, made the nation proud by becoming the first Indonesian to win a medal from the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the sport's governing body.
"I have ordered the minister of Public Works to come to Lombok to rebuild his house," Widodo told reporters in Jakarta, referring to the eastern island in West Nusa Tenggara, the athlete's home province.
Zohri outpaced heavily favored U.S. sprinter Anthony Schwartz to win the gold medal at the IAAF World Under-20 Championships in Tampere, Finland, on Wednesday. Zohri claimed the 100-meter title in 10.18 seconds, his personal best, while Schartz and another American sprinter, Eric Harrison, finished in 10.22 seconds.
News of the historic victory went viral on social media, transforming Zohri from a little-known athlete into an overnight sensation.
Stories about Zohri's impoverished upbringing surfaced hours after the victory, as local media published photos of his house, mostly made of old wood and bamboo.
Zohri is reserved and is never demanding, Zohri's older sister, Baiq Fazila, told reporters.
"He loves running and playing football, but he didn't wear shoes because he didn't have any," Fazila told a local television.
Both of Zohri's parents are dead, but CNN-Indonesia showed his relatives cheering, some with tears in their eyes, as they watched a YouTube video showing him battling for the finish line in Finland.
Last year, Fazila said, Zohri asked her for 400,000 rupiah (U.S. $28) to buy a pair of shoes before leaving for Jakarta for the overseas competition.
"I could only give him what little I had. I'm very proud of him," she told Kompas.com.
"It has been his dream to make his family happy and build a house," said Fazila, who works at a hotel.
In a video posted on Twitter, Zohri thanked Indonesians for their support. Earlier this year, he also won gold at the Asian junior athletics in Japan with a time of 10.27 seconds.
Before Zohri's triumph, the best performance by an Indonesian athlete at the IAAF was an eighth-place finish in 1986, the federation said.
Not resting on his laurels, Zohri is preparing for the Asian Games, a multi-sport event scheduled to open on Aug. 18 in Jakarta and Palembang, capital city of South Sumatra province.
"I'm so proud – this was an amazing experience and this is great for my career," he said after winning gold in Finland, according to the federation's website.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia's conservative Aceh province  publicly whipped 15 people on Friday, including a homosexual couple, despite a pledge in April to hold canings only inside prisons after the punishment drew international condemnation.
Two men each received 86 lashes after they were found guilty in June of engaging in gay sex. The other 13, including five women, were hit with a cane between 13 and 27 times for less serious offences, such as being intimate with the opposite sex while unmarried, and selling alcohol.
A group of Malaysian tourists joined about 1,000 spectators, some of whom mocked those who walked to the raised platform to be caned.
"Come on, strike harder!" one person yelled at the officer who administered the whipping.
"The punishment was carried out publicly because there's still no technical guidelines on how to implement it in prisons," said Muhammad Hidayat, the head of the sharia police known as Wilayatul Hisbah in the provincial capital Banda Aceh.
On April 12, local officials signed an agreement declaring that canings would be carried out in prisons despite protests from a legislator and a group of students who said the punishment served as a deterrent.
"We don't want implementation of this punishment to get in the way of our foreign relations, because of Islamophobia," Aceh Gov. Irwandi Yusuf told journalists at the time, adding a limited number of spectators would be allowed to watch.
"Children are not allowed inside. Visitors can't bring camera, or cellphones," he said. "Can you image if children watch it and see the public cheering, clapping. It is not what Sharia law intends."
Despite that admonition in April, parents brought their children to witness the caning outside the Baiturrahim mosque on Friday.
Bukhari, a fisherman who goes by one name, brought along his wife and children.
"This is the first time I have seen the canings. I think doing this in public is good, so that people think twice about violating sharia law," he said.
The two men convicted of gay sex and who had spent four months in detention cringed in pain as the executioner began administering the lashes. One of them had to sit after several strokes.
Wilayatul Hisbah enforcement chief Evendi said the two men were arrested in March after being found together in a room at a beauty salon owned by one of them.
"Locals raided the salon because they suspected that the salon had become a place for immoral activities," Evendi told BenarNews.
A woman who identified herself as Yanti said she recorded the floggings using a mobile phone, adding that she would post the images on Instagram. Previous public canings have been uploaded on social media, drawing criticism worldwide.
"I've come here and watched the canings so I can learn a lesson and avoid acts that are forbidden by our religion," she said.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian police shot and killed three suspected militants who allegedly threatened officers with machetes in Central Java's Yogyakarta province on Saturday, officials said of the first deadly terror-related shooting in the country since late June.
Two officers with police counter-terrorist unit Densus 88 were injured in the incident that unfolded before dusk in Sleman regency, with the suspects shot as they resisted arrest, a national police spokesman said. A fourth suspect fled the scene in Sleman, located some 531 km (330 miles) southeast of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
"The police took measured and decisive action because the terrorist suspects threatened the lives of the officers and members of the public," spokesman Muhammad Iqbal said in a statement released to reporters.
Yulianto, a spokesman for Yogyakarta police, said officers were trying to apprehend the four suspects who were riding motorbikes along Kaliurang road – about 30 km (18.6 miles) from Yogyakarta town, when the suspects stopped, got off their bikes and came after the policemen with machetes.
The suspects then fled into a neighborhood, where they attacked police who were pursuing them, Yulianto said in a statement.
One of the suspects shouted "Allahu Akbar! (God is great)," prompting the officers to fire shots at them, Yulianto said.
According to a report by the Reuters news agency, Iqbal said the suspects were believed to be members of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), an Indonesian network of militant cells linked with the extremist group Islamic State (IS).
Police blamed JAD for a series of deadly terrorist attacks in Indonesia since January 2016.
On June 22, a Jakarta court handed a death sentence to radical Muslim cleric Aman Abdurrahman, JAD's jailed de facto leader, after finding him guilty of ordering militants from the confines of his prison cell to launch those attacks.
These included a suicide mission that left eight people dead, including four gunmen, in central Jakarta on Jan. 14, 2016. That attack was the first one claimed on Indonesian soil by IS.
Prosecutors said Aman had also inspired militants in a suicide attack that killed three police officers at a bus station in Jakarta last year, as well as a Molotov cocktail blast that killed a 2-year-old and injured three other children at a church in East Kalimantan province in November 2016.
In January 2017, the U.S. government designated Aman a "global terrorist," alleging that he had founded JAD, a network composed of two dozen pro-IS groups. American officials also described him as "the de facto leader of IS supporters in Indonesia."
In May, JAD was also involved in suicide bombings in Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city, authorities said, but Aman has not yet been charged in those attacks. Those attacks involved three families, including girls aged 12 and nine, who allegedly blew themselves up, officials said.
Twenty-seven people died, including 13 suspects.
Saturday's incident in Sleman was the first deadly one involving terror suspects in three weeks. A day after Aman was condemned to death row, Densus 88 shot and killed two suspected militants in Depok, a city in West Java province.
The shooting in Sleman came three days after police said they arrested at least four other suspected militants in separate raids in Yogyakarta province.
On July 11, authorities arrested a man and wife in Sleman suspected of militant activity, and also detained their four children. On the same day, two men were arrested in Bantul, another regency in Yogyakarta, on suspicion of militant activity, police said.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian authorities have arrested some 180 suspected militants and killed another 20 linked with Islamic State since a pair of families launched suicide attacks on churches and a police headquarters in Surabaya in mid-May, the national police chief said Monday.
The suspects slain in counter-terror operations, including three killed by police over the weekend in Yogyakarta province, were members of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) or Jamaah Ansharut Khilafah (JAK), Gen. Tito Karnavian told reporters. Both militant groups have pledged allegiance to the so-called Islamic State (IS) extremist group.
All the suspects were killed while resisting arrest, Tito said.
Indonesian police have blamed JAD for suicide bombings that killed 27 people, including 13 suspects, during the attacks in Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city, on May 13 and 14, as well as other deadly attacks in the country since January 2016.
The number of suspects taken into custody as part of a post-Surabaya crackdown on terror cells nationwide included seven who were arrested in West Java province on Saturday and Sunday, officials said.
"We will not stop expanding our investigation into the Surabaya bombings," Tito told a press conference at the Mobile Brigade headquarters in Depok, near Jakarta.
The police chief declined to say whether any of the scores of suspects were involved in the Surabaya bombings. He also did not reveal information on how many suspects were still in custody or how many had been charged with terror-related offenses.
Under Indonesia's newly revised anti-terror laws, authorities can hold suspects for up to 270 days, or nine months, without charging them.
Sleman shootings
On Saturday, officers with police counter-terror squad Densus 88 shot and killed three militant suspects in the Sleman regency of Yogyakarta province when the suspects allegedly attacked them with machetes in an effort to resist arrest, authorities said.
Officers said they attempted to stop four suspects riding on two motorcycles when the attack occurred, causing police to fire at two of the suspects. A third suspect hijacked a truck and took a woman hostage after crashing into a house. Police ended the stand-off by killing the man.
Tito said the fourth suspect escaped capture by police.
The suspects killed in Yogyakarta were members of JAK, a militant group with ties to JAD, according to Tito. The two groups have similarities, former militant Sofyan Tsauri said.
"They have similar targets and views on jihad," Sofyan told BenarNews, adding that JAK had nothing to do with the Surabaya bombings.
Sofyan said JAK did not plan to attack targets in Yogyakarta because members considered Yogyakarta and the nearby city of Solo, in Central Java province, to be their sanctuaries.
'We will take action and hunt them'
Elsewhere over the weekend, police arrested seven suspected terrorists in raids across Indramayu, a regency in West Java.
Among those arrested was a married couple who allegedly threw a pressure cooker bomb after crashing the gate of the Indramayu police headquarters early Sunday, West Java police chief Agung Budi Maryoto said.
"The pressure cooker bomb did not explode. The materials were low-grade explosives," he said.
In the past month alone, police have arrested 25 terror suspects in West Java, he said.
Tito said the incidents in Yogyakarta and Indramayu indicated that militants were pushing back against police following the series of arrests.
"We are keeping tabs on them. We know where their networks are operating. We will take action and hunt them," he said.
Meanwhile, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo warned that the terrorism threat was present in Indonesia and urged people to take a stand against it.
"All of us have to be aware that terrorism still exists in our country. I appeal to all members of society to work together with the authorities to tackle this problem," he said in Central Java on Sunday.
Tito said police were open to talks with JAD, but its members must reach out.
"There's no way we will initiate a dialogue with them," he said.
Last month, a Jakarta court sentenced radical Muslim cleric Aman Abdurrahman, JAD's jailed de facto leader, to death after convicting him of ordering militants to launch a series of attacks from his cell. Those attacks included a suicide mission that left eight people dead, including four gunmen, in central Jakarta on Jan. 14, 2016, the first claimed on Indonesian soil by IS.
Prosecutors said Aman had also inspired militants in a suicide attack that killed three police officers at a bus station in Jakarta last year, as well as a Molotov cocktail blast that killed a 2-year-old and injured three other children at a church in East Kalimantan province in November 2016. He has not been charged with the May attacks in Surabaya.
Tito also said the government is using other approaches to deal with terrorists.
"Even though there are other efforts being made silently, we want to show that the state is stronger than terrorists," he said.
But Taufik Andrie, a researcher at the Prasasti Perdamaian Foundation, an Indonesian NGO, warned against using repressive tactics in counter-terrorism efforts.
"We hope that arrests are made in accordance with the procedures and there are no wrongful arrests, so as not to lead to more problems," he said, adding that police should take a persuasive approach in combating radicalism.


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BENARNEWS- Rights groups called Wednesday for an impartial investigation into the killings of 11 suspects amid an anti-crime campaign linked to Indonesia's security preparations ahead of  the Asian Games, which the country is hosting next month.
The criticism came after Jakarta police spokesman Argo Yuwono told reporters that the fatal shootings involved officers who also detained almost 250 suspects, including 41 who were shot and wounded, during a two-week campaign from July 3 to July 13.
Some of the wounded, including those with legs bandaged over apparent bullet injuries, have been paraded before photographers.
New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the deadly shootings of criminal suspects suggested that the police felt they had been given a "license to kill."
"The upsurge in killings soon before the start of the Asian Games points to a possible policy that needs an urgent and impartial investigation," Phelim Kine, HRW's deputy Asia director, said in a statement.
Jakarta and the South Sumatran city of Palembang will host the international sporting event, which is expected to be attended by about 11,000 athletes and several thousand foreign visitors, from Aug. 18 to Sept. 2, officials said.
"The Asian Games are intended to celebrate human achievement, not provide a pretext for a police 'shoot to kill' policy in the name of crime control," Kine said.
Gen. Tito Karnavian, the national police chief, said he had ordered police to carry out "massive operations to suppress crime."
"We are conducting a large-scale operation to fight terrorism and conventional crimes such as pickpocketing, robberies, muggings and other street crimes in the run-up to the Asian Games," Tito told reporters Wednesday.
Yeti Andriyani, coordinator for the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), a human rights group, questioned whether police had followed proper procedures.
"Why have the police's actions caused so many deaths? Were the threats faced [by the police] serious and commensurate with the actions taken?" Yeti told BenarNews.
Yeti said the use of deadly force should be the last resort.
"There's a tendency to consider officers who are able to kill criminals as gallant and the actions meritorious," she said, urging the police to evaluate their conduct and hold personnel accountable.
'Firm action'
The shootings took place after Jakarta Police Inspector-General Idham Azis told officers on July 3 to take "firm action" against suspects who posed a threat to public safety.
On the same day, Argo, the police spokesman, told reporters that "if there is resistance [from suspects], our chief has ordered us to act firmly and quickly [to shoot]. It is not negotiable."
Argo on Wednesday defended the killings, saying officers had to use deadly force because the suspects, who resisted arrest, were armed.
"All police actions were firm and measured. We wouldn't have used [lethal force] if they had not fought officers and threatened the lives of other people," he told BenarNews.
He said relatives of the slain suspects could take the police to court if they had evidence of wrongful conduct.
Sandrayati Moniaga, a member of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), said extrajudicial killings were "a clear violation of human rights."
She warned against a repeat of events in the 1980s, when suspected criminals were summarily killed in large numbers under the pretext of fighting hoodlums.
Human rights groups have also voiced concerns over the growing use of lethal force by police in dealing with suspected drug traffickers.
At least 80 drug suspects were fatally shot by police in 2017, a sharp increase from 18 the previous year, according to rights group Amnesty International.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo, meanwhile, has ordered police to shoot drug dealers if they resisted arrest, raising concerns that his government was emulating Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly war on drugs.
About 100,000 police personnel will be deployed to provide security during the Asian Games so they can unfold smoothly, officials said.
Meanwhile, the Jakarta-based Legal Aid Institute (LAI) said it was advocating for relatives of the victims of police shootings, and urged them to come forward.
So far the institute had received verbal complaints from the families of two slain suspects, according to LAI lawyer Shaleh Al Ghifari.
"We believe more are coming," Shaleh said.


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BENARNEWS- An Indonesian court sentenced a former government official on Thursday to three and a half years in prison after convicting him of terrorism charges linked to his pilgrimage to Syria in 2015, where he allegedly joined the Islamic State with 18 members of his family.
Dwi Djoko Wiwoho, a former director of the Indonesia Coordinating Board's licensing office on Batam island, was found guilty by the West Jakarta district court of conspiracy and helping finance terrorism.
Judges also ordered Djoko, 51, to pay a fine of 50 million rupiah (about U.S. $3,500).
According to court documents, Djoko went to Syria with his wife, Ratna Nirmala, and their three children, along with his mother-in-law who died in Iraq. His brother-in-law, Iman Santoso, and his brother, Heru Kurnia, also made the trip, leaving on Aug. 1, 2015, and staying in Syria for almost two years.
"After deciding to move to Syria, the defendant sought ways to obtain funding for the trip and sold his house," Presiding Judge Heri Sumanto said.
"The proceeds from the sale was transfered to Imam Santoso to be used to fund their trip," the judge said, referring to Djoko's brother-in-law. "Therefore, the charges of criminal conspiracy and helping finance terrorism were proven."
The sentence for Djoko was more lenient than the five-year jail term sought by prosecutors. Iman was sentenced in May to four years in prison for his role in the case.
Charges that Djoko aided and concealed information about acts of terrorism were not proven, the court ruled.
"The defendant, on the contrary, wanted to return to Indonesia after finding that the conditions in Syria were not as promised," the judge said.
"The defendant was remorseful and admitted to his wrongdoing and that travelling to Syria was a mistake,"  he said.
Djoko smiled after the verdict was read and said he accepted the sentence.
He kissed his wife and children and talked to them briefly.
Djoko told the court during a hearing in May that he was persuaded by his wife and his second daughter, who have not been charged with any crime, to travel to Syria.
"I was hesitant initially," he said. "But finally I said: 'Let's see. If things don't go well, we'll go back.'"
Djoko said he became disillusioned in Syria after promises of a job, food and health care did not materialize.
He said IS fighters often asked to marry his underage daughter and ordered him to join military training, even though he wanted to live as a civilian.
Djoko, his wife and children and their relatives went through the government's weeks-long de-radicalization programs to help them re-enter Indonesian society after their return in August 2017.
7 arrested
In other news, authorities arrested seven suspected members of the militant group Jamaah Ansharut Khilafah (JAK) in South Sumatra province, police said Thursday.
The arrests occurred on Wednesday in Palembang, capital of South Sumatra province, and in Banyuasin regency, according to Inspector General Zulkarnain Adinegara, the South Sumatra police chief.
"They were arrested because they engaged in acts that lead to terrorism and embraced intolerant views," Zulkarnain told BenarNews.
"The arrests were a preventive measure," he said, adding that the raids were part of a security operation ahead of the Asian Games, which will be held in Jakarta and Palembang from Aug. 8 to Sept. 2.
Police seized pipes, bows and arrows, two mobile phones and militant-related reading materials from the suspects, he said.
JAK is an IS affiliate, according to national police spokesman Muhammad Iqbal.
"They were arrested in connection with the Surabaya bombings in May," he said,  referring to suicide bombings on three churches and a police headquarters in the country's second largest city, which killed 27 people including 13 attackers.
A terrorism analyst at the University of Indonesia said that both Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), which police say was behind the Surabaya attacks, and JAK support Islamic State.
"JAK has its own structure, which is different from JAD," he said.
He said JAK's Abu Husna met Aman Abdurahman, JAD's leader who was sentenced to death in June for his role in a series of attacks since 2016, while they were both jailed at the Pasir Putih prison on Nusakambangan island.
"Abu Husna had differrences with Aman on organizational matters and wordly things, so he set up JAK with its base on Sumatra," he said, referring to one of the nation's largest islands west of Java.
Meanwhile, national police spokesman Setyo Wasisto confirmed reports from Malaysia on Thursday that three Indonesians were among seven suspected Islamic State-linked militants arrested in the neigboring country during raids conducted in several states over a five-day period, starting on July 12.
One of the suspects had allegedly threatened to kill the Malaysian king, Sultan Muhammad V, and Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
"It's correct," Setyo told BenarNews. "The Indonesian police attaché in Malaysia is currently investigating the information further."


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BENARNEWS- A court in the Indonesian capital began a hearing on Tuesday to determine if Islamic State-linked Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a group blamed for a series of terrorist attacks in the country in recent years, should be disbanded.
The hearing is the first of its kind in Indonesia, after revisions to an anti-terrorism law allowing such action passed in May.
"Zainal Anshori as the leader of JAD has said JAD is intended to be a place for the supporters of the caliphate to gather and take actions, including jihad," prosecutor Heri Jerman said.
"The supporters were then motivated to carry out terrorist acts in various parts of Indonesia."
Those include a Central Jakarta attack that killed eight people, including the four perpetrators on Jan. 14, 2016. The first strike in Southeast Asia claimed by IS was coordinated by Saeful Muthohir (alias Abu Gar), the leader of JAD's military wing, according to the indictment.
Saeful was sentenced to nine years in prison in November 2016 for his role in the attack.
JAD also is blamed for a suicide bombing at an East Jakarta bus terminal on May 24, 2017, that killed five people and wounded 10 others, and an attack on a church in Samarinda in East Kalimantan province that killed a child.
Jo bin Muhammad Aceng Kurnia (alias Juhanda), the man responsible for the church attack, was sentenced to life in prison.
New laws allow govt action
The U.S. government added JAD to its list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists in January 2017. Indonesia has no such list, and until recently had no legal mechanism in place to ban groups that espouse violent extremist ideology.
"Designated as a terror group or not, Indonesia will always be pursuing terrorists," Brig. Gen. Hamidin, a senior official at the National Counterterrorism Agency, told  BenarNews in January 2017.
A year ago, the government used an executive decree to ban the Indonesian branch of Hizbut Tahrir, an organization calling for Muslims worldwide to unite under an Islamic caliphate.
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo approved the decree, which made it easier for the government to revoke the legal status of civil society groups seen as fomenting social unrest and threatening Indonesia's unity. The measure has since become law.
In May, meanwhile, the Indonesian parliament passed revisions to the country's 2003 anti-terrorism law, allowing police to take preventative measures and formalizing a military role in counterterrorism efforts.
Pressure to revise the law grew following suicide bombings involving whole families and other attacks that killed 14 civilians and seven police that month. The revised law was approved a day after a parliamentary committee ruled that spreading ideology or political views that threaten national security could be defined as terrorist acts.
"Under the law on terrorism, any organization that poses dangers to society can be banned," prosecutor Heri said.
Witnesses
Zainal, who is serving a seven-year jail term following his conviction in February on a terror conspiracy charge, was one of the JAD members appearing in court. He has been the group's leader since November 2015.
Among those testifying were Abu Gar, Joko Sugito – the JAD emir for East Kalimantan – and Yadi Supriyadi, who was in charge of the Greater Jakarta area.
Joko Sugito and Abu Gar confirmed they were part of JAD's leadership and they attended a consolidation meeting organized by the group in Malang in November 2015. But they denied any involvement in terrorism.
"The meeting was intended to unite manhaj [methods] conveyed by Abu Bakar al-Baghdadi," Abu Gar said, referring to the IS leader.
"I have never promoted JAD in Samarinda. I was the only one" in East Kalimantan, Joko Sugito said.
He denied that Juhanda, who threw a Molotov cocktail at a church in November 2016, killing a 2-year-old, was a member of JAD. He said Juhanda had pledged allegiance to IS.
Abu Gar denied coordinating with alleged IS ideologue and JAD founder Aman Abdurrahman before the Central Jakarta attack. Aman was sentenced to death last month for his role in attacks carried out by JAD militants.
Abu Gar admitted, however, that he spoke with Iwan Darmawan (alias Rois), who is on death row for the 2004 bombing of the Australian embassy.
Yadi told the court that JAD was formed to forge a common perception about the IS caliphate as per al-Baghdadi's visions.
He said Aman gave a speech through a mobile phone during the JAD gathering in Malang.
"[He] encouraged [JAD members] to commit amaliyah [actions] if they were able," Yadi said.
The hearing is to resume Thursday.


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BENARNEWS- An Indonesian anti-corruption investigator who lost an eye in an acid attack while probing one of the country's largest corruption cases returned to work on Friday, to cheers from officials and co-workers in Jakarta.
Novel Baswedan, a police officer working for Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), was investigating a case that implicated then-House Speaker Setya Novanto, among other officials, when two unidentified men on a motorcycle attacked him with acid in April 2017.
"Those who fight corruption will face hostilities, whether in the form of physical threats or slander," Baswedan told his supporters and colleagues gathered at the KPK building in the Indonesian capital.
"I have no desire for vengeance," Baswedan said, as tears rolled down his cheeks. "This is not just from my lips, but also from my heart. But I will not stop calling for this case to be resolved."
Baswedan said he had no regrets and had forgiven his attackers. But the case must be resolved, he said, as he urged President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to set up an independent team to investigate the attack that left him partially blind.
Police released sketches of two suspects, but no arrests have been made.
Baswedan was the lead investigator in the embezzlement scandal that saw more than $170 million (2.3 trillion rupiah) disappear from a national project to issue new biometric identity cards.
The scandal led to the political downfall of Setya, who lost the House speakership before he was sentenced in April to 15 years in prison for his role in taking kickbacks during the development of the e-ID cards program.
Setya has twice been forced to resign as speaker over corruption-related allegations.
He stepped down in December 2015 after the leader of mining company Freeport McMoran in Indonesia told a parliamentary ethics panel that he had secretly recorded a meeting, where Setya asked for a 20-percent stake in the company. Setya denied the allegation and the attorney general later dropped an investigation.
He was reappointed as speaker in 2016 but resigned after the charges in the e-ID case were filed against him.
Baswedan accused the police of dragging their feet in the investigation. He has previously said that a powerful figure in law enforcement, whom he did not name, was behind the acid attack.
"I appeal to Mr. President, why the president and not the police? Because the police had no willingness to solve this case all along," he told reporters.
Baswedan's co-workers and supporters cheered as they displayed placards and posters demanding that his attackers be brought to justice.
Jakarta police spokesman Argo Yuwono said the investigation was continuing.
"No member of the public has come forward with information about the attackers. Does anyone know? We are still looking for the perpetrators. We're still working hard," he said.
Baswedan underwent a series of eye surgeries in Singapore before returning to a hero's welcome in February. He returned to Singapore for further treatment.
Baswedan said his vision was improving faster than he had expected.
"I thought I wouldn't be able to see again," he said. "As you can see, I can see, I will use my vision to do good."


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BENARNEWS- Former Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Monday endorsed opposition leader Prabowo Subianto as a candidate in next year's presidential election.
Yudhoyono, who is chairman of the former ruling Democratic Party, said he would leave it to Prabowo to pick a running mate.
"We've agreed to forge political cooperation in the form of a coalition and we invite other parties to join," Yudhoyono told reporters at talks with Prabowo at the latter's residence in South Jakarta.
"We've come to an understanding that Mr Prabowo is our presidential candidate," the former president said, to the cheers of those present.
Yudhoyono's backing means that the presidential election is likely to be rematch between Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, the incumbent president, and Prabowo, a former army special forces commander with a checkered human rights record and leader of the main opposition party, Gerindra.
Jokowi narrowly defeated Prabowo in the hotly-contested 2014 presidential election, making him the first Indonesian president without ties to the country's political elite or the military.
A survey conducted by Indikator Politik Indonesia released in June indicated that Jokowi would capture 50 percent of the vote, compared to 39 percent for Prabowo, in a two-horse race.
Candidate registration in August
Prabowo said Yudhoyono's support came with the condition that he put the people first.
"He made a point on several occasions that if I am given the mandate of leading this nation, I have to make the people the focus of my government," Prabowo said.
"And I accept that because that is also the principal goal of my leadership," he said.
Under Indonesia's election law, only a party or a coalition of parties with a minimum 20 percent of parliamentary seats can field a presidential candidate.
Yudhoyono has previously made overtures with Jokowi, raising speculation that he was backing the incumbent president for a second term.
Jokowi's supporters have suggested Yudhoyono turned to Prabowo after his proposal for his eldest son, retired army major Agus Hartimurti Yudhoyono, to be considered as a running mate was rejected by Jokowi.
It is widely believed that Yudhoyono wants Agus to have a go at the vice-presidency after his failed bid to win the Jakarta governorship last year.
Jokowi's ruling coalition, led by Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), stepped out early in declaring support for the incumbent. Other parties in the coalition are Golkar, Islam-based United Development (PPP), Nasdem, Hanura and two new political parties, Indonesia Solidarity and Perindo.
Jokowi has not picked his running mate.
Prabowo's coalition is expected to include the Muslim-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the National Mandate Party (PAN).
The choice of a running mate is expected to be the bone of contention between PAN, the Democratic Party and PKS in the run up to the candidate's registration period from August 4-10.
PKS leaders have insisted that Prabowo's running mate should come from the party while PAN leader Zulkifli Hasan is known to harbor ambitions for the vice-presidency.
"The Jokowi coalition and the Prabowo coalition make for a somewhat balanced contest," said Hendri Satrio, an analyst at the Paramadina University.
"But Jokowi has an edge because his electability is higher than that of Prabowo. The inclusion of the Democrats [in the Prabowo coalition] will narrow the gap," he said.
Golkar deputy secretary general Sarmuji said the Gerindra-Democrat alliance did not worry the Jokowi camp.
"The coalition supporting Mr Jokowi does not feel threatened at all," he said.
Ahmad Syamsudin in Jakarta contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS-Officials and human rights activists in Indonesia's Aceh province criticized a group of residents who threw sewage on a couple they accused of engaging in an extramarital affair.
The couple were eating at a relative's house in Langsa, in eastern Aceh, on Saturday when a mob of locals stormed in, according to media accounts.
"There's no legal basis for members of the public to carry out such a vigilante act," the head of the Aceh Sharia Office, EMK Alidar, told BenarNews.
The woman argued and showed the vigilantes a document stating that the couple had been wed by a Muslim cleric in an unregistered marriage known as nikah siri.
"They did not believe it. They pulled us out and hit us," she was quoted as saying by local media.
After a negotiation with village elders, the man agreed to donate a goat to the village because the couple were deemed to have soiled its reputation.
"We were about to hand over the goat, but there are those who demanded a cow and some suggested that we be showered with sewage. We were very scared and then we had sewage poured on us," she said.
A video circulating on social media showed men pouring bucket after bucket of wastewater on a shirtless man and a woman clad in a green hijab.
"It was just a spontenous act by the locals, which should not have been done because it's akin to taking the law into their own hands. They should have lodged a report with Wilayatul Hisbah [Sharia police] if they suspect something," Alidar said.
Not the first time
Aceh is the only province in Indonesia where Sharia law is in effect. In April, officials agreed to move public canings of Sharia law violators indoors, to avoid public spectacles that draw hundreds of jeering spectators. But public lashings were still being carried out this month.
Commenting on Saturday's incident, Zulfikar Muhammad, executive director of the Human Rights NGO Coalition in Aceh, condemned what he called an "arbitrary act".
"This is not the first case. Before this there were people who had sewage poured on them because they were accused of violating Sharia laws," Zulfikar said.
In March, a man and his girlfriend were showered with sewage by locals who raided a house they were in on suspicion that they were being intimate while unmarried.
Zulfikar and Alidar urged authorities to take action against vigilante acts to prevent people from taking the law into their own hands and tarnishing the implementation of Sharia in Aceh.
"These are illegal, criminal acts committed by members of the public. Police must move swiftly, not waiting for a complaint," Zulfikar said.
"In Islam, accusing someone of illicit sex or adultery without evidence can be punished," he said.
Langsa police chief Satya Yudha Prakasa said an investigation was underway.
"Our personnel are on the ground investigating," he said, adding that the victims had yet to file a police report.


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BENARNEWS- Fire fighters on the Indonesian island of Sumatra are toiling around the clock to extinguish forest fires as the government wants to make sure the Asian Games to be held next month in Jakarta and Palembang will not be marred by acrid smog.
Peat and forest fires have broken out in parts of Sumatra in recent days, officials said, including in a district near Palembang, where some of the Asian Games events will be held.
In Jambi province, fires have affected forest areas covering 160 hectares (395 acres), said Bachyuni Desliansyah, the provincial disaster management agency chief.
"We work night and day to extinguish the fires," Bachyuni said, adding that the effort involved soldiers, police and the Forestry Ministry fire brigade, known as Manggala Agni.
"Most of the fires have been put out, but the threat of new fires is ever-present because there are always those who ignore warnings not to use fire to clear land," he said.
The slash and burn method blamed for forest fires is illegal but is the cheapest way for small-time farmers and companies alike to clear land for planting.
Palembang, the capital of South Sumatra province, will host the Aug. 18 to Sept. 2 Asian Games jointly with Jakarta. About 11,000 athletes and several thousand foreign visitors are expected to attend.
Forest fires have broken out in the Ogan Komering Ilir district, about 70 km (43 miles) from Palembang, raising fears that smog could drift to the city and disrupt events.
"The fires are being handled effectively," said Raffles Panjaitan, the Forestry and Environment Ministry's director for forest fire management, who was in Ogan Komering Ilir to inspect the effort.
"We're confident that the Asian Games won't be affected by haze because all parties involved are working very hard," he said.
In addition to firefighters on the ground, five helicopters have dropped water bombs over South Sumatra, local Air Force chief Heri Sutrisno told Detik.com news portal.
Armed forces chief Air Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto said aircraft with weather modification technology was sent to Sumatra on Monday to create rain through cloud seeding.
"We have seen reports of a cyclone in the Philippines. We'll catch its tail and seed it so as to trigger rain in South Sumatra," he said.
Fires decreased since 2015
Forest fires are an annual hazard in Indonesia and the resulting haze sometimes travels to neighboring Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and Thailand, sending air quality to unhealthy levels.
But Indonesia has seen fewer forest fires since 2015, when 2.5 million hectares (6.2 million acres) of forest and peat areas burned as the dry season was exacerbated by the El Niño weather phenomenon.
About 450,000 hectares (1.1 million acres) of peat and forest areas in Indonesia burned in 2016 and only 150,000 hectares (370,000 acres) last year, said Herry Purnomo, a scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).
"The government's efforts to prevent forest fires have been largely successful. It's impossible to stop the fires completely," Purnomo told BenarNews.
"This year the issue is of critical importance because we're hosting the Asian Games. Authorities at all levels and the private sector are working hard to put out the fires," he said.
Peat fires are especially hard to extinguish as they can burn several meters deep, Bachyuni said.
"About 22 percent of this year's fires in Jambi occurred in peatland," he said. "We have to put them out as soon as possible before they get bigger and out of control."
The government has been criticized by environmental groups for a plan where timber and paper companies will be given new land if their existing concessions include at least 40 percent of restored peatlands.
An analysis released last week by a coalition of environmental groups suggested that about a quarter of the 921,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) to be given to the companies in return for restoring peatland to natural forest.
"This contradicts the government's pledge for a moratorium on issuing new licenses for natural forests," said Syahrul Fitra, a campaigner for the environmental group Auriga.
Purnomo said areas designated for land swaps should be degraded forest land.
"There's a lot of degraded land. About half of production forest areas are degraded lands," he said, referring to land that has lost some of its natural productivity because of human activities.
Satellite view
The U.S. space agency NASA has created a tool that shows fires and hotspots around the world by superimposing temperature data on near real-time satellite imagery.
To check for today's hotspots, open the link to NASA Worldview. Red dots represent fires or volcanic activity. To obtain the latest imagery, move the grey slider at the bottom of the screen to the right.
Not all fires may be pictured because of cloud cover or their relatively low intensity.
"Peat fires can smolder in the subsurface for weeks to months after ignition, often at temperatures too low to be detected accurately from space," according to a study by researchers at Columbia and Harvard universities.

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Satellite imagery provided by NASA shows fires and hotspots in Indonesia and neighboring countries. (Courtesy NASA Worldview)



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BENARNEWS- An Indonesian court on Tuesday banned a militant group blamed for a series of Islamic State-linked attacks in the country, including the nation's first suicide bombings involving children.
Judges at South Jakarta District Court declared Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) "an outlawed organization" after ruling that it was affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) – the first time in a decade that Indonesia has prosecuted a terror group.
"Our decision conforms with the request of the prosecutor to declare JAD guilty of terrorist acts," presiding judge Aris Bawono Langgeng said.
The verdict would make it easier for law enforcement officials in the world's largest Muslim-majority nation to arrest suspects connected to the organization or to prosecute other terror groups, analysts said.
JAD militants carried out a series of attacks in the country between 2014 and 2018, including one that killed four victims in January 2016 in Jakarta. The Jakarta attack was the first terror strike claimed by IS in Southeast Asia.
Terrorism analyst Adhe Bhakti told BenarNews the court's action was an important milestone in the country's fight against terrorism.
"It has become a precedent. Any group that is affiliated to Islamic State can be brought to court," Adhe said. "There's a legal basis to prosecute other terrorist organizations."
Muh Taufiqurrohman, a Jakarta-based analyst at the Center for Radicalism and De-radicalization Studies, told the Wall Street Journal that he expected arrests to number "in the hundreds."
"We should expect to see massive arrests in the coming weeks, particularly of those having participated in paramilitary trainings organized by JAD leaders," he said.
JAD became the second organization to be outlawed by an Indonesian court since 2008, when authorities banned Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), the group blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.
National police spokesman Senior Commissioner Yusri Yunus, declined to comment on the verdict.
JAD was founded in 2014 by Aman Abdurrahman, who was sentenced to death in June for his role in the attacks, according to witness testimony during the trial.
The United States in January 2017 classified JAD as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist and tagged Aman as de facto IS leader in Indonesia.
Police also said JAD was behind suicide attacks carried out by two families on three churches and a police headquarters in Surabaya in May that killed 14 bystanders.
National police chief General Tito Karnavian on Monday said counter-terrorism police arrested more than 220 suspected militants linked to the Surabaya attacks and killed 21 others.


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BENARNEWS- At least 98 people were killed and more than 200 injured after a magnitude 7.0 quake struck Indonesia's Lombok island and rattled neighboring Bali, officials said Monday, while authorities emphasized that the death toll would likely climb as rescuers were still attempting to reach worst-affected areas.
Thousands of homes and buildings were damaged, many completely flattened in Sunday's quake, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency.
The quake prompted a tsunami warning but the advisory was lifted about two hours later. Last week, a magnitude 6.4 quake also hit the island and killed 20 people.
"The casualties will most likely increase as the joint search and rescue teams have not reached all areas," Sutopo told reporters.
Magnitude 7 is classified as a major earthquake, capable of widespread damage, seismologists said.
President Joko Widodo called for more flights to be sent to the affected areas, as social media videos showed tourists running into the streets. He also ordered emergency services to quickly evacuate those with injuries.
"I have also asked the authorities for tourists to be taken care of as best as possible," he told reporters in Jakarta.
Sutopo said a two-story mosque where residents were praying on Sunday collapsed during the earthquake, but rescuers had not been able to retrieve victims.
"There must be casualties but there's no heavy equipment to retrieve the victims," he said.
The district of North Lombok, which is just east of Bali, was the hardest hit, with at least 72 people killed, Sutopo said.
"Most of the casualties were caused by debris from collapsing buildings," he said.
The epicenter of the shallow quake was at a preliminary depth of 15 kilometers (9.3 miles). Depth is a key factor in determining how damaging an earthquake will be, with quakes closer to the surface causing broader destruction, according to the Colorado-based U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
The quake also shook buildings on the neighboring island of Bali, another popular tourist destination, and caused some minor damage to its international airport.
The quake has spawned at least 132 aftershocks, USGS said.
Local television footage showed patients, many still hooked to intravenous drips, receiving treatment in hospital grounds on Lombok island, where displaced residents have erected makeshift shelters in open fields.
"Many houses are totally destroyed," North Lombok district chief Najmul Akhyar told Metro TV.
Hundreds of anxious foreign and domestic tourists have evacuated from the Gili Islands resort off Lombok to the mainland, officials said.
A meeting on counterterrorism to be attended by foreign ministers from Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and Myanmar and scheduled for Monday on Lombok had been cancelled, chief security minister Wiranto said.
Widodo said Wiranto, who was already on Lombok, would lead the relief effort.
Australia's Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who was on the island to attend the counterterrorism conference, tweeted that he was safely evacuated from a hotel in Lombok together with members of his delegation.
"We are not yet aware of the extent of the damage, but thoughts and prayers are with those impacted," he said.
He later told Fairfax Media that he was on the hotel's 12th floor during the quake, which he described as "powerful enough to put us on the floor."
Indonesia was the hardest-hit nation on Dec. 26, 2004, when a magnitude 9.1 quake occurred off the west coast of Sumatra, spawning a series of devastating tsunamis in 14 countries and killing more than 227,000 people. The nation is within the so-called Ring of Fire, a major area in the basin of the Pacific Ocean where about 90 percent of earthquakes occur, according to seismologists.
The deadliest earthquake on record took place in Shaanxi province of China on Jan. 23, 1556. It killed 830,000 people, according to USGS.

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A damaged home is seen after a powerful earthquake struck Pemenang in North Lombok, Indonesia, Aug. 6, 2018. [Antara Foto/Ahmad Subaidi/via Reuters]



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BENARNEWS- Juanda continued praying, at first, when the mosque started shaking.
But as soon as the walls rattled, Juanda sprinted toward the door while other worshippers behind him screamed. He leapt toward his motorcycle just as the walls of the building began to buckle. 

He never reached it.
The two-story Jabal Nur Mosque collapsed almost like a pancake, burying his motorcycle. Its green dome fell flat on the ground.
"Just a little closer and I might have died," said Juanda, who uses only one name, like many Indonesians.
Juanda recalled the speed with which Sunday's 6.9 magnitude earthquake toppled buildings and left thousands homeless in North Lombok, near the epicenter of the devastating temblor.
He said about 100 people were performing nighttime prayers inside the mosque when the temblor struck, but wasn't sure how many were trapped.
Hours after Juanda's interview with BenarNews on Tuesday, soldiers posted on social media a video of a man wearing a prayer cap being pulled alive from the rubble. He appeared disoriented as he staggered away from the ruins and repeatedly raised his arms, palms open, as if thanking his rescuers. "Thank God," some rescuers said, "thank God."
Scores of volunteers, soldiers and police officers swarmed around the flattened building on Tuesday afternoon, combing through the rubble with two excavators. In another mosque, about 20 kilometers (about 12 miles) away, volunteers sifted through the debris using only hand tools.
The death toll stood at 105 on Tuesday afternoon and more than 200 were injured, according to Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency, BNPB. That figure was expected to increase, officials said.
Anak Agung Alit Supartana, chief of the region's Search and Rescue Agency office, told reporters two people had been found alive at the Jabal Nur Mosque as of Tuesday evening. Three bodies had been recovered, he said.
The quake, which struck at a shallow depth of 10.5 kilometers (6.5 miles), was initially recorded at magnitude 7.0, but the Colorado-based U.S. Geological Survey had revised it down to 6.9.
It hit the northern parts of Lombok, where at least 78 bodies have been recovered, a week after a magnitude 6.4 quake surged through the island and killed 20 people, authorities said.
Sunday's quake triggered a brief tsunami warning and was felt on neighboring Bali and Gili islands, as well as other parts of East Java. There have been as many as 230 aftershocks, according to seismologists.
"We are concerned aid trucks can't get through because of the debris, and there are also landslides happening," Husni Husni, a Jakarta-based spokesman for the Red Cross, told CNN. "The army has been trying to clear up to make a corridor for trucks to pass through."
Authorities said more than 20,000 people lost their homes in northern Lombok, a mountainous region with a population of about 200,000.
Local residents told reporters they urgently need food, medicine and clean water as a humanitarian crisis loomed for thousands left homeless by the disaster. Drinking water is scarce as the quake broke pipes in the villages.
At Jami'ul Jamaah Mosque in Karang Pangsor village, worshippers were also praying inside when the quake caused its roof, upper floors and walls to collapse.
"I got stepped on because all the worshippers were panicking as they tried to leave," Ama Yusron told BenarNews. He was not hurt.
He said about 30 women were among inside the mosque that night – in the women's section at the back. Due to their location, they would have had the most difficulty leaving, he said.
At midday Tuesday, rescuers clawed through slabs of concrete and twisted rebar at the mosque, but workers did not have any heavy machinery. The slow rescue effort underscored the challenges the nation faced as it struggled to cope with another natural disaster.
"Up until about 9 o'clock this morning, we still heard calls for help, but we don't hear them anymore," Sonihadi, the village chief, told BenarNews.

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Rescuers search for survivors under concrete and twisted rebar of the Jabal Nur Mosque in Lading-Lading town of North Lombok, Indonesia, Aug. 7, 2018. [Anton Muhajir/BenarNews]



Cracked roads
Almost every building along the main road of Lombok's capital, Mataram, to the town of Tanjung in the north, about 43 kilometers (27 miles) away, was damaged: homes, mosques, hotels, restaurants. The road itself was cracked in several places.
Many structures with thin cement walls have been flattened.
Fahriyah, who lives and works near where a ferry departs for the three small islands off the north coast, saw her shop-house destroyed. The islands are popular among divers and snorkelers because of their crystal-clear waters.
"There's nothing left. It's all destroyed. But ... all my kids and workers are safe," she said, as she surveyed the rubble of her home in Bangsal village.
Tourists talk about horrifying experience
Thousands of foreign tourists were also impacted by the quake.
Australian tourists Gillian and Michael Harvey, who were traveling with their two small children, described how they had spent more than 10 hours getting to the island of Gili Trawangan.on Sunday, and had only been there for a couple of hours when the quake hit.
"We were only out [of our accommodation for] 15 minutes before it happened, we were so lucky we were not inside as some of the restaurant's roofs had fallen down and crushed people," Gillian told Australia's ABC News.
She said there was widespread panic on the beach as they feared a tsunami was on its way.
"Then someone said the tsunami warning had been triggered and everyone was running for high ground," she said. "The only problem with getting to the hill was we had to walk through buildings and pass all of the dead and injured bodies and that was horrible."
Beth Melluish and Isabelle Farrow of London were also vacationing on Gili Trawangan when the quake struck. The two suffered cuts to their knees from fragments of a hotel wall.
"I climbed a tree," Beth told BenarNews. "I was so afraid of a tsunami."
Indonesia straddles the so-called Ring of Fire, a major area in the basin of the Pacific Ocean where about 90 percent of earthquakes occur, according to seismologists.
On Dec. 26, 2004, about 130,000 people died in Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh when a magnitude 9.1 earthquake occurred off the west coast of Sumatra, spawning a series of devastating tsunamis.
Like many villagers traumatized by roars of aftershocks, Melluish and Farrow said they slept on the beach with three friends when they were certain the danger of a tsunami had passed – none materialized after the Aug. 5 quake. A boat evacuated them the next day.
About 75 percent of North Lombok has been without electricity since Sunday, officials said. Along the island's scenic northwest coastal road, thousands of people were sleeping outside their homes.
Boats were still ferrying tourists out of the three Gili islands at midday Tuesday, with two central government ministers – Coordinating Political, Security and Legal Affairs Minister Wiranto and Minister of Social Affairs Idrus Marham – watching the proceedings at Bangsal Port on Tuesday.
About 7,000 foreign and domestic tourists have been evacuated from the three islands, Wiranto said.
"We have to make sure they are all handled properly – [taken] wherever they want to go and given every assistance," he said.
Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of the disaster mitigation agency, told reporters that damaged bridges were frustrating efforts to send aid in some villages in North Lombok and in other heavily affected areas west of the island.
"They have not been touched by any assistance," he said. "All shops and stalls there are closed, making the economy totally crippled."

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Rescue workers search for survivors in the rubbles of a building that pancaked after powerful earthquake struck North Lombok in Indonesia's West Nusa Tenggara province, Aug. 7, 2018. [Anton Muhajir/BenarNews]



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BENARNEWS- Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has picked a senior Muslim cleric as his running mate for next year's election, in a move seen as an attempt to bolster his religious credentials amid accusations by conservatives that he is not Islamic enough.
Jokowi said he chose Ma'ruf Amin, the 75-year-old chairman of the Indonesian Council of Muslim Scholars (MUI), because the two would make a "nationalist-religious combination."
"We complement each other," Jokowi told reporters after announcing the decision at the end of a gathering in Jakarta attended by the leaders of parties supporting his candidacy.
The choice of Ma'ruf came as a shock as only hours earlier local media quoted former Constitutional Court chief Muhammad Mahfud  as confirming he had been picked as Jokowi's running mate.
"I have been picked and I consider it a call of history," Mahfud was quoted as saying by the news portal Liputan6 .com.
Jokowi is seeking a second five-year term as president in the election scheduled for April 17, 2019.

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Jakarta governor-elect Anis Baswedan (center), his deputy governor-elect Sandiaga Uno (left), and Prabowo Subianto (right), celebrate during a press conference in Jakarta on April 19, 2017. (AFP)

His rival in what is expected to be a two-horse race is former general Prabowo Subianto, who is teaming up with Jakarta's deputy governor, Sandiaga Uno, a wealthy businessman and fellow party stalwart.
"Gerindra, PKS and PAN have entrusted me and Sandiaga Uno to be their presidential and vice-presidential candidates," Prabowo said at his home in southern Jakarta, referring to his party and its coalition partners.
The Democatic Party of former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is opposed to the choice of Sandiaga and said it would make a decision Friday on whether to support the pair.
"We hope that in the next two or three hours there will be an agreement between Prabowo and the Democrats," Democratic Party deputy secretary general Andi Arief said.
"Otherwise we will go separate ways," he said.
It is widely believed that the Democrats wanted Prabowo to pick Yudhoyono's son, U.S.-educated retired army major Agus Harimurti, as his running mate.
Helped jail Ahok
Jokowi narrowly defeated Prabowo in a bitterly divided presidential election in 2014.
"It's clear the president wants to play safe and lock in the conservative Muslim vote but at the same time he is disappointing a lot of people who were looking for someone a little more inspiring," Keith Loveard, senior analyst at Jakarta-based Concord Consulting, told BenarNews.
"Ma'ruf is the religious equivalent of a machine politician," he added.
Ma'ruf was instrumental in the jailing last year of former Jakarta governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, an ethnic Chinese Christian, on charges of blaphemy.
Conservative Muslim groups held large protests against Ahok in 2016 and 2017 in the run-up to a gubernatorial election in which he was a front-runner, after an edited video made it appear like he said that the Quran deceived people.
An MUI fatwa declaring Ahok's remarks blasphemous bolstered Muslim opposition against him and paved the way for his prosecution.
Ahok lost the Jakarta gubernatorial election to a Muslim candidate, Anies Baswedan, and was later sentenced to two years in prison for blasphemy.
"There is a good chance that a lot of progressives will prefer to abstain. Generally there is a lot of gloom that the choice has come to this," Loveard said.
Arya Fernandes, a researcher at the Jakarta-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said Jokowi had to settle with Ma'ruf because some coalition politicians objected to Mahfud.
"Jokowi wanted to accommodate the interests of the political parties supporting him," Arya said.
"The sudden change in the vice presidential pick shows that political parties still hold sway," he added.
The president has been criticized by conservative Muslims for issuing a decree last year paving the way for the disbanding of Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, the local branch of an international Islamic organization seeking the establishment of a caliphate through peaceful means.
Some Muslim conservatives have also accused his government of being hostile to Islamic clerics after police last year sought to question Rizieq Shihab, the leader of the Islamic Defenders' Front, a vigilante group, on charges of pornography after screenshots of alleged sex chats between him and a female supporter circulated on social media.
Shihab was among the leaders of Muslim groups behind the blasphemy campaign against Ahok, an ally of Jokowi.
"Jokowi is worried that the issue of religion would be used to attack him," Arya said.
"But I suspect identity politics won't sell in 2019 because in 2014 he won in spite of it," he said.


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BENARNEWS- A powerful magnitude 6.2 aftershock rattled Indonesia's Lombok island on Thursday, causing people to run onto roads in panic as authorities said the death toll from a devastating earthquake on the weekend topped 300.
The aftershock caused some buildings already damaged in Sunday's quake to crumble, injuring at least 24 people, according to National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.
"The aftershock measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale worsened the victims' trauma," he said.
It was the third major temblor to strike the island since the magnitude 6.4 quake on July 29 that killed 20 people and Sunday's quake that the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) initially recorded at magnitude 7.0. The Colorado-based agency later on revised it down to 6.9.
Indonesia's geological agency reported that Thursday's aftershock was shallow, at a depth of 12 kilometers (7.5 miles). That tremor measured at 5.9, according to USGS and Geoscience Australia, giving a slightly lower magnitude.
Senior security minister Wiranto, who is in charge of coordinating the emergency response after Sunday's 7.0-magnitude earthquake, put the death toll at 319.
"This figure was based on reports from villagers to local officials," said Wiranto, who goes by one name.
There were conflicting reports over the number of fatalities.
National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the official death toll stood at 259, but he warned that the casualties were still expected to rise as rescuers clawed through rubble in search of more bodies.
"Some victims are still under the rubble of collapsed buildings," he said.
At least 1,030 were being treated in hospital with serious injuries and more than 270,000 people were displaced, Sutopo said. About 70,000 houses, schools, mosques and other buildings were damaged, he said.
Indonesia's Meteorological, Geophysical and Climatological Agency has recorded at least 355 aftershocks since Sunday's quake.
Indonesia sits on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an area known for frequent volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
 
Governor's daughter hit by debris
Among the injured was the daughter of West Nusa Tenggara Gov. Muhammad Zainul Majdi. She was hit by debris from a public kitchen set up to feed the displaced. A video showed the governor's wife, Erica, trying to comfort her.
The disaster has also taken a toll on the island's tourism.
The Bangsal Port, which was usually bustling with foreign tourists traveling to Gili Islands, was deserted.
More than 7,000 tourists, mostly foreigners, have been evacuated through other ports on Lombok and the neighboring island of Bali.
Almost all residents of Gili Trawangan islet have sought refuge on the Lombok mainland.
"We have evacuated on Monday," said Agus Radi, a Gili Trawangan resident.
Agus said most Gili Trawangan residents rely on tourism for their livelihood.
Hotels, restaurants and other businesses were hit hard at Gili Matra. Authorities were still trying to assess the cost of damage, Lalu Mohammad Faozal, head of the provincial tourism office, told BenarNews.
"Emotionally, we are shaken, seeing all the badly damaged buildings," Lalu said. 


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BENARNEWS- The death toll from the earthquake that hit Lombok island in central Indonesia has risen to 436, and damage caused by the disaster is estimated at more than 5 trillion rupiah (U.S. $345 million), the country's disaster management agency said Monday.
North Lombok regency was the hardest hit by the 6.9-magnitude earthquake that struck on Aug. 5, with its residents accounting for more than two-thirds of the casualties, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB).
Sutopo said the death toll is expected to increase as new reports of casualties are verified. In addition, more than 1,350 people were injured and 352,000 have been displaced.
"The figure represents the victims whose deaths have been recorded and for whom death certificates have been issued," Sutopo said.
Losses are estimated at 5.04 trillion rupiah (about $345 million), he said.
"BNPB is still assessing the economic impact of the earthquake," he said. "BNPB together with government ministries, institutions and non-governmental organizations are committed to building better and safer.
Indonesian officials say the country does not need foreign aid to recover from the quake.
"Looking at the situation, the national capacity is adequate to handle the aftermath of the earthquake, so international aid is not yet needed by the government of Indonesia," Sutopo said last week.
"We are open to receive aid because people there need it, but we are also able to handle, such as in rebuilding houses that are damaged," President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said Friday, according to Republika, an Indonesian media outlet.
Aid offers
Foreign aid already has been offered, meanwhile. Last week, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that Australia, through its department of foreign affairs and Red Cross, had promised AU$150,000 ($109,000); China's embassy had donated $100,000; USAID had donated $60,000; and the International Red Cross had donated 211,000 Swiss francs ($212,000).
NGO Mercy Malaysia said it was hoping to build 1,000 temporary houses for the earthquake victims. Executive committee member Norazam Ab Samah said 20 emergency shelters had already been set up, according to national news agency Bernama.
Another 100 units are expected to be set up this week, said Norazam, an architect. The 1,000 shelters will cost about 500,000 ringgit ($122,000) and are expected to be completed within two months.
Damaged roads and infrastructure have hampered the distribution of aid to affected areas, Sutopo said. Tents, ready-to-consume food, blankets and sanitary equipment are among the most-needed items.
The disaster agency, the military and the national search and rescue agency were deploying three helicopters to distribute supplies to isolated areas, Sutopo added.
Awal Firman Sebastian, whose house was destroyed in the quake, said he and other displaced people in his village of Tebango in Pemenang district had received instant noodles and bottled water, but little else.
"When we get tired of eating noodles we go to the nearby farm and pick some vegetables," he told BenarNews.
Awal said nearly 90 percent of houses in the area was destroyed.
"We expect to live in tents for another two or three weeks," he said


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