IDNEWSNOW.COM, Jakarta – The National Police’s counterterrorism squad Densus 88 official Sr. Comr. Aswin Siregar said the Jamaah Islamiyah terror group in Indonesia could collect tens of billions of rupiahs in a year. The funds were used to finance their activities.
“For example, it was revealed during the examination that Syam Abadi booked an income of almost Rp15 billion per year,” said Aswin at a press conference on Thursday, November 25.
Syam Amal Abadi is a subsidiary of Syam Organizer, one of Jemaah Islamiyah’s institutions to raise funds. Other institutions include BM ABA (Baitul Maal Abdurrahman Bin Auf).
Aswin explained that Densus discovered the funds from the group’s financial statement. While in fact, he added, Jamaah Islamiyah owned a disconnected system that could prevent them from having formal financial records.
“The real number could be more fantastic than what could be revealed through the report,” Aswin said.
Densus 88 confiscated nearly Rp1 billion in cash at the head office of Syam Organizer. To date, Aswin said his squad has arrested 14 members of BM ABA and 10 members of Syam Organizer. From them, Densus has obtained other names and their roles to be further explored.
“This funding is the breath and blood, life and death, of the terror group. This does not only happen here. Other terror groups in the world get funding from anywhere because terror acts will not exist if there is no funding,” Aswin concluded.
Read: Densus 88 Arrests 5 Members of Jamaah Islamiyah
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