Jemaah Islamiyah Breakup: Bali Bomber Fears Disgruntled Ex-Members May Join ISIS

For many Indonesians, last year’s disbandment of the militant group behind the 2002 Bali bombings may have come as a relief, but one convict incarcerated for his role in the twin attack fears the move increases terror threats.

Ali Imron, who spoke to BenarNews from the Jakarta prison where he’s serving a life sentence, said the leadership of al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) had been able to control dissatisfied members within its ranks and prevent further violence.

“JI’s directives were very positive, and they worked. There had been no terror attacks by JI members for years,” Imron said.

“My greatest fear is that disappointed members will join organizations like ISIS, and that will be even more dangerous,” he said, using an acronym for the militant group also known as Islamic State.

Imron noted there had been no JI-linked attacks since the 2009 bombings of the Ritz Carlton and J. W. Marriott hotels in Jakarta that killed nine people. Indonesia had outlawed Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian affiliate of al-Qaeda, in 2008.

JI formally announced in June that it was dissolving, would stop advocating extremism in its religious schools, and abide by Indonesia’s laws. Experts, however, said it had decided to stop orchestrating terror attacks in the late 2000s and focus on religious outreach.

For Imron, JI’s strict chain of command had served as a moderating force, preventing rogue members from pursuing violent agendas. Without that structure, he warned, former members may seek out more extreme groups.

“Even though JI has technically disbanded, it will likely still exist somewhere else in a different vessel,” Imron told BenarNews.

Imron was arrested, convicted and sentenced in 2003 for assembling and transporting the explosives used in the attacks on Bali nightclubs that killed more than 200 people on Oct. 12, 2002. He has since participated in Indonesia’s deradicalization programs.

Jemaah Islamiyah was founded in 1993 by Indonesian clerics Abdullah Sungkar and Abu Bakar Bashir. It aimed to establish an Islamic caliphate across Southeast Asia.

The group operated with training and funding support from al-Qaeda. In its heyday, JI maintained a network of operatives in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and beyond.

Imron claimed that JI as an organization was not directly responsible for any attacks on Indonesian soil and that its disbandment could potentially create a false sense of security.

“From the beginning, the people who committed acts of terror were members of JI, but it was not the organization that directed them to attack anyone,” he said.

“It was our own initiative and many senior members of the organization did not agree with the Bali Bali bombing.”The other ringleaders of the Bali bomb plot, Imam Samudra, and two of Imron’s brothers, Amrozi and Mukhlas, were executed by Indonesian authorities in 2008.

Some experts said JI had always had more influence, politically and institutionally, than simply its violent history.

Another former senior member of JI, Farihin Ibnu Ahmad, who lives in Jakarta, concurred with Imron.

“There was no need for the organization to disband,” Farihin said to BenarNews.

JI’s pivot away from violence had made its continued existence less of a threat, he said.

“But the majority of members agreed with the senior management [to dissolve the group], so they just followed what they said,” he said.

According to Zachary Abuza, a counterterrorism expert based in the United States, increased arrests of JI members in recent years likely put pressure on the group to disband.

“The Indonesian government had given them a fair bit of space to go about their business,” Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington, told BenarNews.

“[B]ut in 2020 and 2021 there were as many arrests of JI members as there were of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) members, and JAD, while incompetent, was actually killing people.”

In 2022, Indonesian authorities said that JAD, an Indonesian militant organization aligned with Islamic State (IS), was to blame for most terror attacks in the country during the previous six years.

Between 2021 and 2023, Indonesian authorities arrested 610 people on terrorism-related charges.

Of them, 42% were linked to JI and 39% belonged to groups aligned with IS, such as JAD, according to government data.

When asked about Imron’s concerns that JI dissolving may increase extremist threats in the region, Abuza acknowledged there may be some risks but was skeptical about the group’s future relevance.

“They are old guys now,” he said, referring to JI’s aging leadership. “There will be a new threat, but I am not convinced it will be [IS-linked] JAD. I think it will be something new.”