[Dhaka Tribune] A Singapore court has sentenced two Bangladeshi citizens to above two years in jail for financing terrorism.
They were detained along with six Bangladeshi nationals accused of plotting to finance terror attacks in Bangladesh and the sentence was declared on Tuesday, reports Channel News Asia.
Zaman Daulat, 34, and Mamun Leakot Ali, 30, pleaded guilty on Tuesday afternoon, after earlier denying charges brought against them under the new Terrorism (Suppression of Financing) Act (TSOFA). Zaman was sentenced to 24 months, while Mamun was sentenced to 30 months behind bars.
The duo are part of group of 8 plotting to overthrow the Bangladesh government.
They were tossed into the calaboose along with six other radicalised Bangladeshi nationals under the Internal Security Act in April for planning to topple their government back home. They previously denied the charges brought against them under the Act.
The duo, clad in purple overalls with the word "detainee" printed on the back, were brought in to the courtroom just after 3.30pm. They were surrounded by five Gurkha officers throughout the proceedings. There was heavy police presence even before proceedings commenced.
Prosecutors said Zaman, a construction worker who earned between S$1,300 to S$1,500 a month, provided S$200 to Rahman Mizanur for the purpose of facilitating a terrorist act in Bangladesh.
Mizanur was among four other Bangladeshi nationals sentenced to between 24 months and 60 months for financing terrorism in July. He was the ringleader of the group, authorities had said.
Mamun, prosecutors said, had asked a man to pass Mizanur S$500 from leftover funds collected from a previous group of 27 Bangladeshi nationals repatriated for terror links. Mizanur had called for funds for the purpose of eventually forming the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... in Bangladesh (ISB).
Mamun was deputy leader of the group, but took over as ringleader when Mizanur was tossed in the calaboose Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! on March 29. Zaman was security counsel of the group.
Prosecutors asked for 24 months for Zaman, and 30 months for Mamun given their roles in the group. While the amount of money involved was not large, it is "well-known" that in the current climate of terrorism, great violence can be perpetrated through small amounts of money, they said.
Lawyers Ramesh Tiwari and Noor Marica representing the men pro bono, argued in mitigation that both men had realised their mistakes.
Marican said Zaman, who has a wife and daughter in Bangladesh, realised how misguided he was and asked for forgiveness from the state and from Singaporeans for causing fear. Marican added that Zaman wanted to convey the message that he had realised his actions were not part of the teachings of Islam and that he had gone against his religion by promoting harm.
As for Mamun, Marican said he had cooperated fully with investigations once legal counsel had been provided.
The four men sentenced previously ‐ Rahman Mizanur, Miah Rubel, Md Jabath Kysar Haje Norul Islam Sowdagar and Sohel Hawlader Ismail Hawlader ‐ had pleaded guilty in May to one or two counts each of providing or collecting hundreds of dollars to fund terror attacks in Bangladesh.
[SMH.AU] The Philippines military has been ordered to go "full force" to wipe out the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf terrorist group as thousands of additional troops move into its strongholds.
The order came as 15 Philippines soldiers have been killed and 12 others wounded in clashes with the militants on remote southern Philippine islands since Monday.
[JAPANTIMES.CO.JP] Malaysian police said Wednesday they had foiled possible attacks on the eve of the country’s Independence Day with the detention of three suspected Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... members.
National police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said the three men had planned to attack entertainment centers in Kuala Lumpur, a Hindu temple that is also a popular tourist destination and cop shoppes with grenades or firearms on Tuesday.
Malaysia marked its 59th National Day on Wednesday with a grand parade in the city.
Khalid said the men, detained in a three-day operation from Saturday, had received orders to launch attacks from Muhammad Wanndy Muhammad Jedi, a Malaysian fighting with the Islamic State group in Syria. Police also seized a grenade and a handgun with 24 bullets from one of the suspects.
Khalid said the trio -- a truck driver, a butcher and a drink seller -- had planned to fly to Syria to join the Islamic State group following the attacks.
Police had earlier said that Muhammad Wanndy was believed to have ordered a grenade attack in June on a bar outside Kuala Lumpur, marking the myrmidons’ first attack in the country.
Moslem-majority Malaysia has detained 200 suspected bully boyz over the last three years, and police raised the security alert level earlier this year following attacks abroad.
[JAPANTIMES.CO.JP] During a May 2011 shootout, Indonesia’s counterterrorism forces killed the leader of a Death Eater group thought to be behind a series of failed bomb attempts around the city of Solo in Central Java.
The death of Team Hisbah founder Sigit Qurdowi caused the group to splinter. Some formed an anti-vice squad in the city; many others became associated with a former Solo resident called Bahrun Naim, who authorities believe is a leading Indonesian coordinator for the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group.
Now, five years later, Naim, based in the IS stronghold of Raqqa, Syria, is building an ever-more-sophisticated network of bandidosforces of Evil from his former hometown, according to police, self-proclaimed murderous Moslems and people who work with the bandidosforces of Evil in Solo.
Solo, which has a long history of schools and mosques associated with radical Islamists, is a breeding ground for Naim’s recruits, counterterrorism officials say, and many of his lieutenants in Indonesia have come from Team Hisbah.
As a result, authorities fear the risk of a major attack in Indonesia is growing.
Islamist militancy in the world’s most populous Moslem-majority nation has been contained since a crackdown on Jemaah Islamiyah -- al-Qaeda’s franchise in the region -- put hundreds of its leaders and followers behind bars in the mid-2000s.
But like al-Qaeda before it, IS is reviving a fragmented radical Islamist movement in Indonesia that has endured in various incarnations for the past century, authorities say.
Nearly $800,000 has been transferred from foreign countries to fund radical Islamist groups in Indonesia since 2014, officials from Indonesia’s financial transactions watchdog said at an international counterterrorism conference in Bali in mid-August. It wasn’t clear how much money has come from Naim, who police say is now Indonesia’s most-wanted Death Eater.
Rooters contacted a man identified as Naim last November on the Telegram app, using details provided by one of his acquaintances. In that exchange, Naim said IS had "enough men in Indonesia to carry out an action, more than enough support. Just waiting for the right trigger." Rooters could not independently verify the man’s identity or his assertions.
Amir Mahmud, a former Afghan-trained mujahedeen, started the Islamic State Supporters Forum in Solo -- a city also known as Surakarta -- in July 2014 to "accommodate the development" of a jihadi movement in Indonesia.
Around 2,000 people showed up to one of its first gatherings at the Baitul Makmur Mosque, where many backed an Islamist caliphate in the Middle East, he said.
"This is a spontaneous spiritual calling," said Mahmud, who is also an Islamic university lecturer. "Islamic State is a booming movement."
Mahmud said two of his sons left Indonesia to fight for IS in the Middle East, and one has been killed.
Indonesia does not prohibit citizens from supporting groups such as IS or fighting for them abroad. Police say they can arrest terrorism suspects only once they have committed a crime on Indonesian soil.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
