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Indonesian planning to be suicide bomber worked in Singapore as nanny

SINGAPORE –– A would-be female suicide bomber who was arrested over the weekend for planning to attack the Presidential Palace in Jakarta had worked in Singapore as a nanny, said Indonesian media reports.

Dian Yulia Novi in an interview with TVOne. Photo: Screencap

Dian Yulia Novi in an interview with TVOne. Photo: Screencap

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SINGAPORE — A would-be female suicide bomber who was arrested over the weekend for planning to attack the Presidential Palace in Jakarta had worked in Singapore as a nanny, said Indonesian media reports.

In an interview with Indonesia’s TVOne news channel broadcast on Tuesday (Dec 13), Dian Yuli Novi said she spent one-and-a-half years in Singapore, looking after three children aged 11, nine and five months. She did not mention when she worked here but Indonesian media said it was in 2014. She reportedly decided to work abroad when her parents became sickly.

Clad in a black hijab, Novi, who is originally from a village called Bakung Lor in the Cirebon port city in West Jaya, also revealed that she worked in Taiwan for three years as a caretaker for a 78-year-old.

She claimed to speak English and Mandarin. She spoke a bit of Mandarin when asked to by the station’s senior reporter Ecep Yasa. "Ni hao," she said, explaining that it is hello in Chinese.

The 27-year-old said she never wore the hijab when she worked abroad, only a headscarf, and claimed she never took a day off work.

Novi was among four suspects linked to Islamic State militant Bahrun Naim. The suspects were arrested by the Indonesian authorities on Saturday, a day before they planned to attack the Presidential Palace during the changing of guards ceremony.

Novi was to be the "bride", a term used by militants to describe a martyr. But the police thwarted the plan after arresting two of her accomplices, who were delivering the pressure- cooker bomb. The police have also arrested three other suspects.

"This (act of) suicide bombing was not because I was feeling hopeless, being depressed and wanting to end my life, but it is to get blessings from God and get priority in jihad fisabilillah," she said in the TV interview in referring to an Arabic term which means "struggle for the sake of Allah".

She admitted that she had been in contact with Naim on three occasions through the encrypted chat app Telegram but was unaware of the details of the plot until days before the planned attack. She also claimed ignorance on materials used to make the bomb.

"He (Naim) only disclosed the target three days before," she said.

Naim is the mastermind of a terror attack in Jakarta in January, a July suicide attack on a police station in Solo, Central Java, and more recently, a plot to attack Singapore’s Marina Bay by launching a rocket from Batam.

In defending the planned attack, Novi said the target was "the enforcers of man-made laws".

Naim "himself has explained that there are spectators", she said. "I would mingle with them ... then I would run towards the presidential guard and explode myself. That will be far from the spectators so they would not be hit direct."

Admitting that she was active on Facebook, Novi said she was exposed to material on radical Islam while working overseas. "A year ago, I started reading up profiles of jihadista on Facebook and I felt inspired because they gave a different view on Islam. I did not take part in any discussions, I was just checking them up but eventually became more curious," she said, adding that she also listened to audioclips on religious teachings online.

In the interview, she also revealed that she was introduced to her husband, Nur Solihin, by someone on social media and they communicated through Telegram. Solihin was one of the three men arrested by Indonesia’s counter-terrorism squad on Saturday.

They were married three months ago despite never meeting each other and knowing that he is married with children. She was not even present at the wedding, sending a representative for the solemnisation. AGENCIES

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