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ABC News
ABC News
World
By Indonesia correspondent Samantha Hawley

Key suspect in 2016 Jakarta attack an IS sympathiser

A radical Indonesian cleric and Islamic State sympathiser has been named as a key suspect behind a terrorist attack in Jakarta in 2016.

Aman Abdurrahman is accused of ordering the attack, which killed four civilians and four militants, from his prison cell in Nusakambangan high-security prison.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the suicide attack at a Starbucks café and gun attack in a nearby street.

Abdurrahman was placed in isolation after the attack but was granted early release as part of Independence Day celebrations. He was immediately re-arrested.

The 45-year-old had been jailed for nine years for funding a military training camp in Aceh and a failed terror plot in 2004.

He is considered a spiritual figurehead of the Islamic State group movement in Indonesia.

At one point he had shared a cell with Iwan Darmawan or Rois, who is on death row in Nusakambangan for the 2004 Australian embassy bombing.

Rois has also been linked to the 2016 attack but has not been named a suspect by police.

Abdurrahman is linked to Jamahh Ansharut Daulah (JAD) which has been classified as a terrorist organisation by the United States.

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