Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta – Indonesian authorities are red-faced after admitting their primary terrorism fugitive, a 32-year-old believed to have replaced slain mastermind Dulmatin as chief planner for attacks in the country, has been able to post internet jihad messages.
And they have conceded their task has been made even more difficult by the fact that Abdullah Sunata was released from jail last year after serving less than five years of a seven-year sentence for terrorist activity.
The country's "deradicalisation" program, where convicted terrorists are given special privileges in an attempt to turn them away from violence, came under fire as it emerged Sunata probably used the system to engineer his early release.
In the internet message, posted at the weekend, Sunata condemned those who have become "apostates" by abandoning jihad – despite the fact his early release came through him convincing authorities he had seen the error of his ways.
Chief among these apostates, he claimed, was Nasir Abbas, the former Jemaah Islamiah weapons expert who became a key figure in the state deradicalisation program after himself serving jail time for terrorist activity. Abbas now works with the Indonesian police counselling terrorism convicts, trying to convince them they have been deluded when they follow a violent Islamist path.
Abbas's younger sister, Faridah, was married to Bali bomber Mukhlas, who was executed in 2008.
Many "converts" under the deradicalisation program are given financial assistance when they leave jail, including help finding jobs, paying school fees for their children and providing healthcare for their families.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono yesterday acknowledged there was a problem in the system, saying "terrorism remains a threat because the perpetrators who have been jailed still repeat the same acts".
Sunata is believed to have been given assistance in setting up a small business on his release from prison last year.
However, one of dozens of men arrested this year in relation to a new terrorist network in Aceh and organised by Dulmatin has revealed that Sunata was a key player in that operation, too.
According to the national daily newspaper Kompas, Yudi Zulfahri told its reporter that within weeks of Sunata's release last year, he was in Aceh scouting for locations to set up a terrorist camp.