Marina Bay Sands rocket plot militants jailed on unrelated charge
JAKARTA — Six Indonesians accused of plotting to launch a rocket from Batam to Marina Bay were sentenced to between three and four years in jail Wednesday (June 6) on charges of harbouring other extremists.
JAKARTA — Six Indonesians accused of plotting to launch a rocket from Batam to Marina Bay were sentenced to between three and four years in jail Wednesday (June 6) on charges of harbouring other extremists.
Judge Tarigan Muda Limbong said there was not enough evidence to prove the rocket plot.
Instead the court found the men guilty of hiding two Uighurs who were trying to join an Islamic State-linked extremist group in Poso on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi and of setting up a jihadi training camp.
Gigih Rahmat Dewa, the group's leader, was jailed for four years while the five others - Hadi Gusti Yanda, Tarmidzi, Eka Saputra, Trio Syafidro and Leonardo Hutajulu - were each given a three-year jail term.
"The defendants have acted in an organised way and have deliberately aided terrorists," Mr Limbong told the East Jakarta district court, adding that this is a violation of Indonesia anti-terrorism law. He said the six men had pledged
Trial against the men commenced in February where they were slapped with numerous charges including a conspiracy to commit terrorism, funding terror activities and harbouring militants. All six denied the charges against them.
The alleged plot to fire a rocket at Singapore's Marina Bay district was foiled by Indonesia's elite counter-terrorism team in August last year. Authorities said the detained men had hatched the plan with Syria-based IS militant Bahrun Naim, who has encouraged attacks on the city state.
Naim has also been linked to numerous plots and attacks in Indonesia, including a May 24 double suicide bombing in Jakarta that killed three police officers and the two bombers.
Details of the alleged rocket plot, however, remain sketchy. It is also unclear what sort of rocket the group had planned to use although analysts had expressed scepticism about the militants' capacity to carry it out.
However, the terror threat to the Republic remains at its highest in recent years, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said earlier this month as it urged Singaporeans to remain vigilant.
"Singapore was specifically targeted in the past year and the regional threat has heightened," MHA's first-ever national terrorism threat assessment report said. "Singapore has been cited as a target in jihadist publications and videos, by both the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (Isis) and other groups."
Indonesian police were tipped to the whereabouts of the six on Batam by a Uighur who had been arrested on suspicion of plotting to attack Jakarta's minority Christian governor and minority Shiite Muslims.
It is unclear what happened to the second Uighur but he was believed to have been among several who entered Indonesia and tried to join an IS-linked group called Mujahideen of Eastern Indonesia in Poso.
Mujahideen of Eastern Indonesia was headed by Santoso, Indonesia's most-wanted militant who was killed in a firefight with Indonesian security forces last year. The group has attracted militants from other parts of Indonesia and ethnic Uighur Muslims from China's Xinjiang region.
Batam, which is 15km south of Singapore, and the Riau Islands, have been linked to terrorist activities. In the 1950s and '60s, the Riau Islands - which today also include Bintan and Karimun - were used by elements of the Communist Party of Malaya to infiltrate Singapore.
In late 2001, Jemaah Islamiyah explored the possibility of smuggling explosive materials into Singapore from Batam. Last November, it was reported that two Indonesian men planning to travel to Syria were denied entry into Singapore at the HarbourFront Ferry Terminal and sent back to Batam.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim-majority country and has long struggled with Islamic militancy. It has suffered a string of attacks in the past 15 years, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people.
A crackdown had weakened the most dangerous networks, but IS has proved a potent new rallying cry for the country's radicals, and hundreds of Indonesians have headed to the Middle East to join the jihadists. AGENCIES