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