Indonesia investigates former Al-Qaeda militant who planned attack on Singapore Exchange in 2015

Singapore: Indonesian police are investigating a former Al-Qaeda affiliated militant who had planned an unrealised plot to attack the Singapore stock exchange building in 2015, considering the city state an ally of the US, according to a media report here.

Indonesian national, Yudi Lukito Kurniawan, 51, is being investigated by the police over his current and past participation and role in Indonesia's terrorist networks.

He was arrested in Gorontalo, in the northern part of Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island, on August 21.

“We are developing the case to see whether he is a key and crucial element in terror networks,” a source who is close to the investigation told The Straits Times on Tuesday.

The source said the Singapore attack plan in 2015 was meant to be an indirect attack on the United States. “They believe their distant enemy is the US and Singapore is a US ally that is (geographically) closest to Indonesia," he told the Singapore daily.

Yudi was with the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula – the Yemeni branch of Al-Qaeda – when the plan to target the SGX Centre in Singapore’s Shenton Way was hatched, according to The Straits Times, which cited a September 2 press statement from Detachment 88, Indonesia’s national police counter-terrorism squad.

“Yudi tried to enter Singapore in 2015 by sea but was rejected by the Singapore immigration and was deported to Batam," the statement also said.

He had remarried and moved around frequently to avoid detection, said the source. He was known to have spent time in Surabaya and Pasuruan in East Java, Gorontalo in Sulawesi, and Batam, which is a short ferry ride from Singapore.

He also adopted other aliases, with initials IS, AT, MAL and AH, according to the statement.

Yudi was a member of South-east Asia’s terror network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) before he shifted affiliation in 2012 to Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT), which was founded by terrorist ideologue Abu Bakar Bashir, 86. He then moved to Jamaah Ansharusy Syariah, another JI splinter group, according to Detachment 88's statement.

While he was with JAT, Yudi was deployed to Yemen as part of the global jihad movement sponsored by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the press statement noted.

JI was responsible for Indonesia’s largest terrorist attack, the 2002 Bali bombing that killed more than 200, many of whom were foreign tourists. JI was heavily funded by global terror network Al-Qaeda, and on June 30, its leaders in Indonesia declared that they had dissolved the organisation.

“The (latest) arrest is a warning to other JI members who choose not to disband themselves but instead join other terrorist groups. We will get them,” said the source.

Among the evidence the Indonesian police are looking into is a passport bearing Yudi’s name that has a visa stamp issued by the Yemen government, and a document stating Singapore’s 2015 refusal of entry to Yudi, noting that he was ineligible for entry under current immigration policies, according to the broadsheet report.