Marguerite Afra Sapiie, Jakarta – The government has proposed that a mooted revision of the 2003 Terrorism Law contain a new category for terrorism offences.
A new category would fill the gaps in current legislation, Attorney General M Prasetyo said on Monday, and would cover the sale of chemical, biological, radiological, micro-organism, nuclear and radioactive weapons for acts of terrorism.
In the revision of the law, the government also proposes a prohibition on forming relations with terrorist groups abroad, as there is currently no law that can be used to charge Indonesians who go overseas to join such groups. The government also plans to prohibit Indonesians from undergoing military training in other countries or communicating directly or indirectly with terrorist groups abroad.
The proposed revision also included a ban on adopting radical Islamic values, recruiting people for terrorism purposes, sending people to carry out terrorist attacks, funding terrorist movements, giving assistance to terrorist groups and committing violence in the name of terrorism, Prasetyo said.
"If we continue to use the old means, it will be hard for us to address terrorism in the future," he said during a joint meeting to discuss the bill with House of Representatives Commission I overseeing military and foreign affairs and Commission III overseeing legal affairs.
The government is also set to begin to increase cross-border supervision in relation to a 2014 UN Security Council Resolution on measures to counter foreign terrorist fighters.
Efforts to prevent the flow of foreign fighters include investigations into documents to detect suspicious travel, cooperation with other countries on deradicalization, investigating banking information and creating an early warning system for travel agents and airlines services to detect suspicious travel.
Meanwhile, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said the revision bill would focus on preemptive action, with law enforcement officers enabled to arrest alleged terrorists planning to carry out attacks. "The police will coordinate with the National Intelligence Agency [BIN] to detect suspected or alleged terrorists," Luhut said.
The draft of the revision also orders tighter cooperation among stakeholders such as the National Police, the Indonesian Military (TNI), the Attorney General's Office and the Supreme Court. The government would also involve Islamic organizations such as Indonesia's largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama, Muhammadiyah and the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) to help deradicalization programs, Luhut added. (rin)(+)
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/02/16/govt-details-planned-terrorism-law-revision.html