GOI RACKS UP THREE MORE TERRORIST CONVICTIONS

C O N F I D E N T I A L JAKARTA 000239 DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS, S/CT,NSC FOR E.PHU DOJ/OPDAT FOR ALEXANDRE/BERMAN/JOHNSON; NCTC WASHDC E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/10/2019 TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER ASEC ID SUBJECT: GOI RACKS UP THREE MORE TERRORIST CONVICTIONS REF: A. JAKARTA 0071 ¶B. 08 JAKARTA 2144 Classified By: Pol/C Joseph L. Novak, reasons 1.4(b+d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: A Jakarta court has sentenced three Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorists to eight to nine years in prison. The sentences given to the JI operatives were lower than what prosecutors had requested, but the three had cooperated and the sentences were consistent with Indonesian practice. The verdicts underscore the success of the GOI's counterterrorism efforts, which are assisted by USG programs that build prosecutorial capacity and support GOI inter-agency coordination. END SUMMARY. THREE MORE CONVICTIONS ¶2. (SBU) On February 9, three Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorists were convicted in the Jakarta District Court. The three--all of whom were convicted of violating the 2003 anti-terrorism law--are: -- Parmin (aka "Yaser Abdul Baar"),who was sentenced to eight years in prison; -- Dr. Agus Purwanto, who was sentenced to eight years in prison; and, -- Adurrahim bin Thotib (aka "Abu Husna") who was sentenced to nine years in prison ¶3. (C) Specifically, Parmin was found guilty of aiding and abetting a known terrorist, Noordin M. Top (a high-level JI figure who is currently in hiding). Purwanto was found guilty of harboring a known terrorist named Hasanuddin (who was involved in violence in the Poso region of Central Sulawesi). Abu Husna was found guilty of "aiding, abetting and harboring" a known terrorist, Abu Dujana (Dujana was convicted of terrorist offenses last year and is now incarcerated--see more below in para 6). ¶4. (C) The three terrorists held important JI positions. Parmin had contact with Top, a key JI figure. Purwanto was allegedly the head of JI operations in the Poso region of Sulawesi during the Christian-Muslim conflicts of 2000-2001. Abu Husna was head of JI's "education (propaganda) division." Abu Husna and Purwanto were arrested in Malaysia en route to Syria in January 2008. Abu Husna had facilitated their travel by falsifying their passports. The Malaysian police rendered the two men to Jakarta in March 2008. LOWER SENTENCES DUE TO COOPERATION ¶5. (C) The sentences were lower than those sought by the prosecutors. According to court sources, the judge applied lower sentences because the men were cooperative during the trials. The court was especially lenient toward Abu Husna because this was his first offense. Under the new remission rules put in place in 2007, the three terrorists will not be eligible for sentence remissions for five years and will have to serve at least two-thirds of their sentences before being considered for conditional release. ¶6. (C) Notably, the trials seemed to demonstrate the GOI's success in its efforts to deradicalize terrorist prisoners. In the trials of Abu Husna and Purwanto, Abu Dujana--who was convicted of terrorism in 2008 and sentenced to 15 years in jail--testified on behalf of the prosecution. In his testimony, he said the two defendants were his "students" in the southern Philippines in 1999. According to Narendra Jatna and Totok Bambang, members of the USG-funded Terrorism and Transnational Crime Task Force at the Attorney General's Office, Abu Dujana's testimony was extremely helpful to the prosecution and should be viewed as a measure of the success of the GOI's ongoing deradicalization efforts. HIGHLIGHTING SUCCESS ¶7. (C) Indonesia remains firmly committed to fighting terrorism. The prosecution of Abu Husna, Purwanto and Parmin is another success for the USG-funded AGO Task Force on Terrorism and Transnational Crime (SATGAS). In addition to the latest guilty verdicts, the Task Force is also aggressively prosecuting ten suspected terrorists involved in the JI-linked Palembang (Sumatra) terrorist network (ref A). ¶8. (C) The successful prosecutions are due in part to close collaboration between the prosecutors and Special Detachment-88 (a key police anti-terror unit) in gathering evidence. Promoting this close collaboration has been aE focus of U.S. assistance. Over the past two years, the courts have tried nearly 40 terrorism cases and approximately 150 terrorists have been incarcerated in Indonesian prisons. HUME