An Indonesian court on February 6 jailed an Islamist militant for ten years for buying a cache of firearms from the Philippines’ biggest Muslim rebel group for attacks on home soil. Mas’ud, 45, was found guilty of a range of offences - including planning a terrorist act and procuring weapons - by a panel of three judges at the West Jakarta district court.
/ AFP PHOTO / AZQA HARUN
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — An Indonesian court on Tuesday jailed an Islamist militant for ten years for buying a cache of firearms from the Philippines’ biggest Muslim rebel group for attacks on home soil.
Suryadi Mas’ud, 45, was found guilty of a range of offences —- including planning a terrorist act and procuring weapons —- by a panel of three judges at the West Jakarta district court.
The sentencing has highlighted the strong links between militants in Indonesia and the Philippines and comes amid heightened fears about Islamic State-inspired attacks in Southeast Asia.
Suryadi — who accepted the verdict — raised one finger into the air and shouted “Allah-u Akbar” (“God is greatest”) after he was sentenced Tuesday.
He was ordered to pay a fine of Rp 50 million ($3,700) on top of a ten-year prison sentence.
Suryadi first travelled to the Philippines from Indonesia in 2015 at the request of death-row inmate Iwan Darmawan, who is awaiting execution for his part in the 2004 bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta, the court heard.
While there, Suryadi met with members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the city of Davao, where he paid $30,000 via a Western Union account for 18 assault rifles and five handguns.
Just under a year later, he bought another 12 M-16 rifles from the group, again at the request of Darmawan, the court heard.
The weapons were then used in attacks in Indonesia, prosecutors said.
Authorities in Indonesia have been on heightened alert following a wave of recent IS-inspired attacks and plots.
Many jihadists from Indonesia — which has long struggled with Islamist militancy — in recent years travelled to join IS in Syria and the Philippines city of Marawi.
© Agence France-Presse
