Indonesia: IS Sympathizer Gets Life Sentence for Toddler's Death in Church Attack

An Indonesian militant linked to the Islamic State (IS) group smiled after a court in Jakarta sentenced him on Monday to life in prison for a church attack that killed a toddler and injured three other children last year.

Jo bin Muhammad Aceng Kurnia (alias Juhanda) threw a Molotov cocktail at Oikumene Church in Samarinda, capital city of East Kalimantan province, in November 2016, killing toddler Intan Olivia Banjarnahor, and injuring three other children.

Surung Simanjuntak, presiding judge of East Jakarta District Court, emphasized the defendant’s lack of remorse and previous conviction.

“What’s incriminating is that defendant (Juhanda) does not regret his action, and he was a former prisoner convicted for ‘book-bombs’ terror,” the judge said Monday, referring to a terror attack in 2011 where explosive devices hidden in books were delivered through the mail to activists.

“The defendant deliberately attacked the church, although he knew there were many children in the churchyard,” the judge said.

Juhanda, 32, was convicted in 2011 for terrorism offenses, but was paroled in July 2014, police said.

Police said Juhanda learned bomb-making techniques in Aceh from the group led by Dulmatin, a senior figure in the militant group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and one of Southeast Asia’s most-wanted terrorist until he was killed in a police raid in March 2010.

The judge ruled Juanda was guilty of violating Indonesia’s anti-terror law.

“The explosion also damaged several motorbikes and caused casualties, one of them is the (death of) a 2½-year-old toddler, so the criminal act as indicted is fulfilled legally and convincingly,” Simanjuntak said.

The sentence matches the prison term sought by prosecutors.

Full story: BenarNew

Arie Firdaus
Jakarta