Indonesia detains alleged ISIS recruiters

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Indonesian anti-terror police have detained at least 5 men who allegedly arranged for a group of mostly women and children to try and enter Syria to join the Islamic State (ISIS) group, police officials said.

The group – 11 children, 4 women and one man – was detained in the Turkish border town of Gaziantep, and is the latest example of Indonesians heading to battlegrounds in the Middle East. 

Another group of 16 Indonesians are unaccounted for in Turkey after leaving their tour group in late February, and are feared to have crossed over into Syria.   

In a series of raids in and around Jakarta over the weekend, the elite anti-terror police (Densus88) rounded up the men who are suspected of helping the 16 people who were recently caught.

Reporters were initially told Densus88 detained 5 men, but sources within the National Police say 6 people in total were taken in. 

The men are accused of involvement in “coaching, guidance, and recruitment of sympathizers of IS to depart to Iraq and Syria… and the collection and distribution of funds for the activities of ISIS volunteers in Indonesia,” National Police spokesman Rikwanto said late on Sunday, March 22.

Old faces

Four were charged specifically with helping arrange documents for the group to depart for Turkey, as well as previously helping another 21 Indonesians who went to join ISIS.

These include Amin Mude, 38, a father of 3 children from Bogor, who in December 2014 was also detained by police on the same charges, but was released and charged only with document forgery.

In an interview with the Jakarta Post in December, he admitted he was helping Indonesians head to Syria. “Everyone knows that IS is forming a caliphate in Syria and I am just helping people to go there so that they can be better Muslims,” he was quoted as saying.  

One of the suspects, M Fachry, faces a separate charge of urging people to join ISIS on his website, Al-Mustaqbal.net, well as creating and uploading a video online of children being trained by the jihadists.

Fachry was also previously one of the leaders of Arrahmah.com, a radical website that belonged to Muhammad Rizki, a son of Abu Jibril, who was arrested for the July 2009 bombing of JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta.

Densus88 also confiscated items including 9 mobile phones, IDR8 million ($600) and $5,300 in US dollars from the suspects.

The 16 recently arrested are still in detention in Turkey.

Jakarta has already banned support for IS, which controls vast swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, although experts have called on authorities to take further steps to stop the flow of fighters.

Indonesia has waged a crackdown on Islamic militant groups for more than a decade following attacks on Western targets, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people. The campaign has been credited with weakening key networks. – Reports from Ahmad Nazaruddin and Agence France-Presse/Rappler.com