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Associated Press

An Indonesian court sentenced an Islamic militant who eluded capture for 16 years to life in prison on Wednesday after finding him guilty of making bombs used in a 2005 market attack that killed 22 people.
Upik Lawanga, known as “professor”, is a key member of the Jemaah Islamiyah militant network, which the US has designated a terrorist group. It is widely blamed for attacks including the 2002 bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, as well as attacks in the Philippines.
The East Jakarta District Court found Upik, 43, guilty of involvement in the May 28, 2005, attack at Tentena market in Poso district which killed 22 people and injured 91 others, mostly Christians. Muslim-Christian conflicts in Poso in Central Sulawesi province killed at least 1,000 people from 1998 to 2002.
Upik was also accused of building bombs used in a 2004 passenger minibus attack that killed six people and a 2006 attack using a flashlight bomb that killed a Christian woman.

“What the defendant has done was a crime against humanity that left deep wounds, trauma and sorrow for the families of the victims,” said Presiding Judge Sutikna, who goes by a single name.
Upik said he would appeal the decision. He argued in court that he helped make the bombs but did not carry out the attacks, saying he did not know how they would be used. He said he was only obeying orders from other senior members of the group to assemble bombs to avenge Christians for the massacre of Muslims at an Islamic boarding school during sectarian conflict in May 2000.
He said his motive was the deaths of relatives and friends in the Muslim-Christian conflict and the burning of mosques and his brother’s house. Other militants testified that Upik was nicknamed the “professor” because of his ability to build bombs and firearms. They described him as an important figure because of his expertise.
Upik said he joined Jemaah Islamiyah in Poso in 2002 and learned how to assemble bombs from Azahari bin Husin, a Malaysian bomb-making mastermind who was killed in a police raid in Indonesia in 2005. Upik left Poso after the 2005 attacks and lived with his wife and children in Lampung as a duck farmer.
The trial began early September and was held remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Upik, whose real name is Taufiq Bulaga, became one of the country’s most wanted militants after being named as a suspect in the Tentena market attack. He was arrested last year in the same southern town on Sumatra island where Zulkarnaen, believed to be the military leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah network, was arrested by counterterrorism police a week later. Zulkarnaen had been on the police wanted list for 18 years.
Police, who learned of their hideout after interrogating several militants arrested earlier, found a bunker at Upik’s house with handmade guns and explosive materials. The two were tried separately at the same court.
An Indonesian court banned Jemaah Islamiyah in 2008, and a sustained crackdown by security forces with support from the US and Australia helped weaken the militant network.
Indonesia deports Bali ‘suitcase murder’ accomplice Heather Mack
Militant attacks on foreigners in Indonesia have largely been replaced in recent years by smaller, less deadly strikes targeting the government, mainly police and security forces, inspired by Islamic State group tactics abroad.
Indonesia’s police counterterrorism unit, known as Densus 88, has arrested more than 500 suspected Jemaah Islamiyah members in the past two years, including a member of the Indonesia Ulema Council, the country’s highest Islamic body, who was arrested last month.
Authorities estimate the group has more than 6,000 members.


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Indonesia

Indonesian militant Upik Lawanga gets life sentence for 2005 attack that killed 22

Islamic militant Upik Lawanga sentenced  to life in prison for making bombs that killed 22 people. Photo: AP 

Indonesian policemen secures the bomb site at city market in Tentena, Poso, Central Sulawesi in 2005. Photo: EPA

Aris Sumarsono, also known as Zulkarnaen, the military commander of Indonesian terror group Jemaah Islamiah. Photo: Indonesian Police

As Indonesian police foil bomb plots, the country’s Chinese community finds itself targeted again

Indonesia’s special counterterrorism squad Detachment 88, seen here in a 2010 training exercise, arrested four members of the banned Islamic Defender Front on March 29. Photo: AFP

Rizieq Shihab, the leader of the banned Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), was arrested last year for violating Covid-19 rules. Photo: Reuters

Chinese-Indonesians walk past destroyed houses in Jakarta in 1998 after the area was looted by mobs during riots that precipitated President Suharto’s downfall. Photo: Reuters

Isis supporters in Indonesia, Malaysia call for more violence after attack during holy period for Muslims and Christians

Police officers secure the area during a raid on suspected militants in Jakarta following the March 28 Makassar attack. Photo: EPA

Members of a police bomb squad inspect the area surrounding the site of Sunday’s suicide bomb attack. Photo: AP

Police officers at the Regional Police Headquarters in Jakarta stand at attention during a show of force in the wake of Sunday’s suicide bomb attack on a church. Photo: AP

‘Terror season’ fears as Indonesia arrests over 100 suspected extremists and Japan issues threat warning

Indonesia’s elite anti-terror police unit 'Densus 88' has arrested 123 members of the Southeast Asian terrorist network Jemaah Islamiah since last month. Photo: AFP

** FILE ** Ali Imron, second right, one of the key suspects in the Bali bombings, is escorted by armed police officers as he leaves the courtroom after his first trial, in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, in this Monday, July 21, 2003 file photo. The militant serving a life sentence for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings was seen by reporters sharing a coffee with a senior police officer in an upmarket shopping mall in Jakarta, media reports said Thursday. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 13, 2002, file photo police officers inspect the ruins of a nightclub destroyed by an explosion in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia. The U.S. government is finally getting around to charging three prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center of involvement in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings after holding the men for 15 years at the isolated U.S. base in Cuba and in clandestine CIA “black sites” for three years prior. Monday’s scheduled arraignment of the Indonesian man known as Hambali and two men from Malaysia comes as the Biden administration works behind the scenes to close the detention center and as other war crimes prosecutions at Guantanamo that are dogged by similar issues of torture and prolonged detention without charge have languished for years without resolution. (AP Photo, File)

A special police team beef up security at the cathedral in Makassar on March 31, 2021, ahead of Easter following a suicide bombing on Palm Sunday last weekend. (Photo by INDRA ABRIYANTO / AFP)

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After evading capture for 16 years, Upik Lawanga, was found guilty of making bombs used in Tentena market attack that killed 22 people and injured 91 others
He is a member of the Jemaah Islamiyah militant network, widely blamed for other attacks including 2002 bombings on resort island of Bali that killed 202 people



Upik Lawanga was found guilty of making bombs used in the Tentena market attack, which killed 22 people and injured 91


Bali bombing

Crime

Terrorism