'Indonesian couple linked to Sabah might have been involved in Jolo bombings'
Published on: Friday, August 28, 2020
By: Zam Yusa
Rezky Fantasya @ Cici, daughter of an Indonesian couple who suicide-bombed a Jolo church in January 2019 is seen here engaging in a shootout with the Philippine military. (Screengrab and caption: Rappler)
Kota Kinabalu: Philippine authorities should be cautious against an Indonesian couple linked to Sabah who might have been involved in the latest suicide bombings Monday that killed more than a dozen people in Jolo, Sulu, said a terrorism researcher.
Andi Baso, 21, is said to have married Rezky Fantasya @ Cici, 17 in Sabah, before facilitating the illicit travel to southern Philippines of his parents-in-law Rullie Rian Zeke and Ulfah Handayani Saleh, who later in January of last year blew up themselves at a Jolo church, killing almost two dozens people and injuring scores more.
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In the latest suicide bombings which occurred near the church, at least 15 people were killed and dozens injured after two Abu Sayyaf militants’ widows sought by the Philippine military detonated their improvised bombs.
Ulta Levenia Nababan, lead terrorism researcher at Jakarta-based think tank Galatea, said Andi is actively recruiting Indonesians to join the Abu Sayyaf group (ASG) in the southern Philippines.
“We could assume that Andi Baso had roles behind the acts [latest bombings]. And because he is still alive and actively spreading propaganda about ASG in Indonesia, he is also inviting some Indonesians to join him with the ASG,” Ulta told Daily Express.
“As long Andi Baso is alive and able to communicate with Indonesian terrorist cells, the threats will escalate. Especially based on his record, he has many links through which to connect the ASG to ISIS [the Islamic State terror group] overseas like in Syria and Iraq.
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“He may still be using these links to strengthen ISIS links with JAD [Jamaah Ansharut Daulah] in Indonesia and ISIS in Syria or Iraq. His influence can create other security issues in Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.”
“Cici may have been involved to prepare the [latest] attacks but she was not the one who carried the explosives. Andi and Cici had got married in Sabah before they were smuggled to the southern Philippines.
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“Indonesian and Philippine authorities should deepen their cooperation under one task force to tackle these foreign terrorist fighter activities,” recommended Ulta.
Daily Express has contacted the Philippine military and Indonesian National Police spokespersons for comments on the matter.
Malaysian authorities in June last year reportedly declined to specify when Rullie and Ulfah entered Malaysia, but said the couple hatched their plans within a month of getting to know suspected extremists Mohd Ali Suhari, 21, and Marwan Harun, 25, both Indonesians based in Sabah.
“With the help of Ali and Marwan, Rullie and Ulfah took a boat ride to Sabah and from the east coast city of Semporna, they took a speedboat to the southern Philippines and later to Jolo,” then-Malaysia’s counter-terror chief Dato’ Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay told BenarNews.
The Indonesian couple became acquainted with Ali and Marwan through Andi, who travelled with them to the Philippines, reported BenarNews further.
Philippine news site Rappler said Andi had worked at an oil palm estate in Sabah.
An Indonesian counter-terror official said Andi, Cici, and her two younger siblings are being coddled by an Abu Sayyaf faction led by a leader cited in a Pentagon report as the ISIS acting chief in the Philippines.
“Andi, Cici and her siblings Aisha, 11 and Ahmad Ibrahim, 12, are being protected by Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan’s group,” Counter-Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTF) Task Force at Indonesia’s Densus 88 anti-terrorist police unit, Dr. Didik Novi Rahmanto, told Daily Express.
“Aisha has also married a Filipino after arriving in southern Philippines,” said the official.
Hatib is one of almost two dozen Filipinos wanted by the Eastern Sabah Security Command and is tagged by Philippine authorities as the mastermind in the 2019 Jolo church suicide attack.
Didik said there were 37 Indonesian militants in the Philippines -- 11 died, three returned, nine deported and 14 still in the Philippines.
“Of the 14, 10 are in prison and four [Andi Baso and his family] have joined Sawadjaan’s group. But it is suspected that there are still other Indonesian citizens in the southern Philippines.”
The Pentagon’s latest quarterly report to the US Congress early this month said although the Philippine ISIS branch remains “organizationally fractured” and “largely isolated from the support of international terrorist networks,” it and various ISIS-aligned groups, including the ASG, operate independently from each other.
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