JAKARTA: Two suspected Indonesian extremists went on trial yesterday accused of an “evil conspiracy” to bomb the Myanmar embassy to avenge the killing of Rohingya Muslims in that country.
Rokhadi, 28 and Achmad Taufiq, 22, could face the death penalty over the plan to attack the mission in May, amid anger in Muslim-majority Indonesia at persecution of the stateless Rohingya in mainly Buddhist Myanmar.
Rokhadi, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, allegedly raised funds for the attack while Taufiq is accused of helping assemble bombs.
Police say they foiled the plot when they arrested Taufiq, who was carrying a backpack full of pipe bombs, along with another man riding a motorbike in south Jakarta the night before the planned attack.
“The accused carried out an evil conspiracy,” prosecutor Okto Ricardo told the South Jakarta District Court.
The men “wanted to bomb the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta so that there would be casualties, injuries and damage” to put pressure on the government in Myanmar, whom they blamed for the attacks on the Rohingya, Ricardo said.
The prosecutor told the court the men were part of an extremist group called Negara Islam Indonesia (the Islamic State of Indonesia).
Rokhadi is accused of transferring 300,000 rupiah ($26) to the alleged mastermind of the plot, Sigit Indrajid, to buy a blender and hydrogen peroxide to help make bombs.
AFP
