CT UPDATE - JI MEMBERS FOUND GUILTY, OTHER TRIALS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 JAKARTA 000228 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS, S/CT, INL FOR BOULDIN/BUHLER DOJ FOR CRIM AAG SWARTZ, DOJ/OPDAT FOR LEHMANN/ALEXANDRE/BERMAN DOJ/CTS FOR MULLANEY, ST HILAIRE FBI FOR ETTUI/SSA ROTH NCTC WASHDC NSC FOR E.PHU E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/05/2018 TAGS: PGOV KJUS PTER ID SUBJECT: CT UPDATE - JI MEMBERS FOUND GUILTY, OTHER TRIALS MOVING FORWARD REF: A. JAKARTA 167 ¶B. JAKARTA 118 ¶C. 07 JAKARTA 3426 ¶D. 07 JAKARTA 3391 ¶E. 07 JAKARTA 2852 Classified By: Dep/Pol/C Stanley J. Harsha, for reasons 1.4(b) and (d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: In the latest counterterrorism news: six members of Jemaah Islamiyah's (JI) military wing were found guilty of terrorism and sentenced to 8-10 years in prison; witness testimony continued in the trials of two senior JI leaders; and the Supreme Court is moving to address a last ditch effort to avoid execution by the three Bali bombers. A one month grace period granted to the three terrorists to submit a clemency request has expired. END SUMMARY. SIX FOUND GUILTY ¶2. (U) A Jakarta Court handed down guilty verdicts in the trials of six members of Jemaah Islamiyah's so-called "military" wing (ref E). Five of the defendants--Suparjo aka "Sarwo Edi," Maulana Yusuf Wibisono, Sikas, Amir Ahmadi and Mahfoudz Qomari--each received sentences of ten years in prison. The sixth, Ahmad Sharul Uman, was sentenced to eight years. The men were arrested last March by elite anti-terror police (SD-88),who broke up a planned weapons transfer from Wibisono's East Java JI cell to Suparjo's group in Central Java. The transfer had been ordered by JI military chief Abu Dujana (tried separately - see below.) ¶3. (SBU) The cases were ably prosecuted by members of the AGO Task Force on Terrorism and Transnational Crime. In their verdicts, the judges rejected arguments by Muslim Defense Team (TPM) lawyers that the men were only storing weapons and undergoing military training to defend the Muslim community from possible future attacks. Instead, the Court found the six men guilty of violating the 2002 Anti-terrorism law. TPM has yet to announce whether it will appeal the verdicts. DUJANA TRIAL CONTINUES ¶4. (C) Witness testimony continued in the trial of key JI operative Ainul Bahri aka "Abu Dujana" (refs B and D). Key witnesses included Suparjo, Qomari and Ahmadi (see above), all of whom testified that it was Dujana who had appointed them to their positions in the organization, which they referred to as "Sariyah." They also testified that it was Dujana that had ordered the March weapons transfer which led to their arrests, as well as earlier transfers from Java to Central Sulawesi. Attempting to defend Dujana, Suparjo said that Dujana had opposed responding violently to the January 2007 police raids in Central Sulawesi. He also claimed that the surveillance of a Christian university rector in early 2007 had been merely a "training exercise." ¶5. (C) Additional testimony in the trial was provided by former JI leader Nasir Abbas. (Note: Abbas renounced JI after his arrest in 2003 and has been cooperating openly with police.) Abbas described his own experiences in JI and laid out the organization's structure to the judges. He also described meeting with fellow JI members Dujana and Zarkasih in Afghanistan in the 1980's. Defending JI's record, Abbas said the group did not condone "anarchy" and that the perpetrators of the Bali bombings and other attacks were "disloyal" to JI. Zarkasih (who is being tried separately - ref C) also testified at Dujana's trial. He denied being a member of JI, and instead claimed to belong to a group called Jamaah Minal Muslimah. Zarkasih stated that he was not the group's head, but rather the chair of the Amir Selection Committee (Lajnah Ikhtiar Linasbah Amir or LILA) which was supposed to nominate a new leader for the group. JAKARTA 00000228 002 OF 002 ¶6. (C) Lead prosecutor Narendra Jatna told poloff that Abbas' testimony could be used to support the charge that Dujana was part of a terrorist "corporation," as described in article 17 of the antiterror law. Ansyaad Mbai, the GOI's top counterterrorism official, recently told DCM (septel) a conviction under article 17 could pave the way for a GOI decision to ban JI. COURT TAKES ON LAST-DITCH APPEAL ¶7. (C) A last ditch effort to delay the executions of the three Bali bombers is making its way through courts (ref A). The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court this week ordered that the request for a second judicial review, submitted by lawyers from the Muslim Defense Team (TPM),be forwarded directly to the Court for action. Indonesian law does not provide for a second judicial review. Meanwhile, the AGO's 30-day grace period for a possible request of clemency expired on February 2. The Chief Justice's personal intervention in the case, and his prior statements that the TPM's request had no legal basis, make it unlikely that the bombers will get a favorable decision from the Court. The move by the TPM may buy a few more weeks of time, but not much more. HUME