Four Indonesians Jailed over Terror Plot

Local Editor

An Indonesian bomb maker inspired by Daesh [the Arabic acronym for the terrorist "ISIS" group] extremist was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison for plotting to blow up a Buddhist temple on Java Island.

The court heard that Ibad, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, received funding and guidance for the attack from Bahrum Naim, a radical extremist linked to the January suicide attacks in Jakarta that left eight people dead.

In parallel, three others were also found guilty of terrorist offenses in a Jakarta court and sentenced to four years and eight months over their role in the failed bomb plot.

Ibad's lawyer said his client had been lured by Naim through social media to carry out an attack. The two had known each other for many years before Naim traveled to Syria and rose to notoriety among Indonesian extremists fighting for the so-called Daesh group.

Although the group assembled a bomb, they were arrested by police just days before launching their attack.

A sustained crackdown in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, weakened many of the most dangerous extremist networks responsible for a string of deadly homegrown attacks during the 2000s.

But the attack in downtown Jakarta earlier this year, the first claimed by Daesh in Southeast Asia, sparked fears of a resurgence in militancy.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team