Militant behind plot to kill Jakarta governor jailed for six years
AN INDONESIAN militant who planned to assassinate Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama and also attack places of worship in Bogor city with homemade bombs was sentenced to six years in jail.
JAKARTA - Details that emerged during the sentencing hearing |of Arif Hidayatullah also confirmed his links to another Indonesian militant, Bahrun Naim, who is believed to be fighting alongside the Islamic State jihadist group in Iraq and Syria.
Naim has also been linked to several domestic militant groups and a handful of terror-related incidents, including the January 14 attacks in Jakarta as well as a failed plot to launch a rocket from Batam at Singapore’s Marina Bay and a suicide bombing in Solo, Central Java, in |July.
District Judge Siti Jamzanah on Monday said evidence indicated that Naim had given Hidayatullah instructions to procure explosives and other materials in order to assemble bombs for the attack.
Police investigations revealed that the two terrorists communicated through a chat group on the Telegram messaging app.
Hidayatullah, who also goes by his nom de guerre Abu Musab, was targeting Basuki, better known as Ahok, and places of worship in Bogor, which is south of Jakarta.
The hearing at the South Jakarta District Court also revealed that Hidayatullah did not go ahead with the attacks because he was |not confident that the |homemade bombs would detonate.
But Judge Jamzanah said she was convinced by the evidence that Hidayatullah had conspired to mount acts of terrorism with the bombs and “was fully aware” that the bombs would have caused mass destruction had they exploded.
Hidayatullah was arrested in a police raid on December 23 last year, together with an Uighur named Ali who had planned to carry out a suicide bombing.
Ali had been introduced to Hidayatullah by another militant named Nur Rohman, who later blew himself up at a police station in Solo in July.
Hidayatullah confessed that Nur Rohman was one of the two men who had escaped the December 23 raid, the police said.
According to a source close to the investigations, Nur Rohman had built the bomb with instructions that Naim had sent via Telegram.
THE STRAITS TIMES
Asia News Network
