Asia-Pacific

14 suspected terrorists charged in Indonesian Aceh

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-03-04 15:12

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesian police have charged 14 suspected Islamist militants arrested in restive Aceh province with planning terrorist attacks and shot dead another, an official said Thursday.

The men were caught in several raids since February 22, when the first four were arrested by police after a gunbattle in a suspected militant training camp in Aceh's mountains, police spokesman Maj. Gen. Edward Aritonang said.

"We have been able to prove that they were planning terrorist acts," he told reporters.

They confessed to undergoing paramilitary training including weapons use and hand-to-hand combat at the raided camp in preparation for a terrorist attack, he said, declining to specify the alleged target.

Under Indonesia's tough counterterrorism laws enacted in 2003, a conviction for planning a terrorist attack can carry a maximum prison term of 20 years.

Another suspect was shot dead by police after he fled with two men on a bus that was stopped at a police checkpoint before dawn Wednesday, Aritonang said. Witnesses said the other two men escaped.

Aritonang previously said one of the suspects received terrorist training overseas, but he refused to say where.

Police were investigating whether the men, all Indonesian nationals, were part of the Malaysian-born terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah, he said.

No other terrorist groups are known to be active in Aceh. Separatist rebels signed a peace agreement with Indonesia's government in 2005, ending 29 years of fighting. Aritonang said none of the suspects was a former member of the now-disbanded Free Aceh Movement.

During the raids, police also seized four assault rifles, thousands of bullets, uniforms similar to Malaysian military issue, jihadist books, and DVDs about bombings on the island of Bali in 2002 that killed 202 people and were blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah, Aritonang said.

The 14 suspects will be flown from the provincial capital Banda Aceh to national police headquarters in the capital Jakarta for further questioning, he said.