Terror funds flowing to Jakarta

Authorities are investigating suspected Islamic State funding raised in Australia and sent recently to Indonesia.

Australian and Indonesian authorities are investigating suspected Islamic State funding, with “significant” amounts of money raised in Australia and sent recently to Indonesia.

The funding was detected in a joint operation between Indonesia’s Financial Transactions and Analysis Centre (PPATK) and its Australian counterpart, the deputy chairman of PPATK, Agus Santoso, said yesterday.

Information about the Indo­nesian recipients — believed to be ­Islamic State-supporting groups although Mr Agus would not confirm that yesterday — has been handed to the national police counter-terrorism unit, Densus 88. PPATK officials would soon travel to Australia to continue their investigation with the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, Austrac.

“We strongly suspect that the money is for terrorism, that is what we found,” Mr Agus said. “I cannot tell the number but it is quite a significant amount, that is why PPATK and Austrac are alert and concerned.”

Mr Agus said he had not identified the sums involved as “up to hundreds of thousands of dollars”, a figure attributed to him yesterday by a leading Indonesian newspaper, nor had he identified the recipients as Islamic State sympathisers. “I don’t know if it’s from ISIS network,” he said. “That is the task of Densus 88 to prove.”

However, Mr Agus said the suspected flow of terror funding from Australia began only ­recently and involved several “subjects”.

The funding issue arose during an international conference in Jakarta on Monday on responding to the threat of Islamic State terrorist activities, particularly the recruiting of Indonesian men to fight in Syria and Iraq. According to the Koran Tempo newspaper, PPATK had as of February identified flows of funds totalling seven billion rupiah ($682,200) from within Indonesia to groups supporting Islamic State.

Mr Agus would not confirm that estimate yesterday. PPATK is prohibited from publicly disclosing details of the financial information it gathers and relays to law enforcement agencies.

Most funding raised by Islamic State supporters is currently thought to be used to send ­Indonesian recruits to Syria, via Turkey.

The Indonesian counter-­terrorism co-ordinating agency, BNPT, has estimated that more than 500 Indonesians have joined ­Islamic State fighters in the ­Middle East conflict zone.

A Singapore-based terrorism expert, Rohan Gunaratna, told Monday’s conference that he had identified 19 Islamic State support groups in Indonesia, compared with three in The Philippines and five in Malaysia.

He claimed Indonesia was hosting 200 radical Islamist websites, many spreading Islamic State propaganda and ideology.

The Indonesian government has been slow to act decisively against recruitment, particularly through websites, and suspect travel to Turkey and Syria.

In recent weeks the administration of President Joko Widodo has come under public pressure from BNPT to strengthen legal frameworks against international terrorist penetration.

In an interview published yesterday, Mr Joko, who is ­visiting Japan and China, said a new presidential decree banning Islamic State activities was “still in the ­process”.

Mr Agus said uncovering the funding flow from Australia was an example of the successful co-operation between PPATK and Austrac.