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Indonesia strengthens police and prosecutor anti-terrorism coordination



Jakarta (Indonesia), 10 March 2014 - Preventing and fighting terrorism remains a key objective of the global security agenda. Terrorist activities and organizations are often transnational, making promoting international cooperation and enhancing the ability of national institutions to investigate and prosecute terrorism-related cases a core component of an effective counter-terrorism strategy.

The Government of Indonesia has made sustained efforts to strengthen its counter-terrorism capacities at both the normative and operational level. According to the Indonesian Counter-Terrorism Coordination Agency (BNPT), in the past two years at least 121 terrorism-related investigations were brought to justice by Indonesian law enforcement agencies, with convictions arising in at least 83 cases.

Additionally, in February 2013, a special bill was passed. It tackled the financing of terrorism by implementing mechanisms to allow the prompt freezing and seizure of terrorist assets.

Despite significant progress, vigilant states must continue ensuring smooth, swift cooperation and coordination between their counter-terrorism entities.

UNODC, in partnership with the Government of Indonesia and the European Union, supports Indonesia's efforts to enhance collaboration in investigating and prosecuting terrorism-related cases. It does this within the framework of a joint EU-UNODC initiative to support Southeast Asian countries to counter terrorism, and in line with the overall objective of Sub Programme 3 of UNODC's Regional Programme for Southeast Asia 2014-2017 and UNODC's Indonesia Country Programme 2012-2015.

As part of this initiative, UNODC and the Indonesian Counter-Terrorism Agency, with financial support of the European Commission, held a working group meeting for 20 Indonesian law enforcement, criminal justice and National Counter-Terrorism Agency officials on 25 February 2014.

Part of a broader effort to strengthen police and prosecutor collaboration on terrorism matters, the meeting aimed to draft operational guidelines to enhance a collaborative approaches in handling terrorism-related cases, and to discuss further action.

High-level participants emphasized the importance of strong cooperation between law enforcement and judicial authorities is critical to providing effective criminal justice responses to terrorism in Indonesia.

"Strong collaboration between law enforcement agencies is key to successfully implementating criminal justice responses to terrorism in Indonesia," said Police Inspector General Arief Dharmawan, Deputy for Law Enforcement and Empowerment, Indonesian Counter-Terrorism Agency, one of the workshop participants. "This meeting was an important step in that direction."