Another Ngruki alumni in hot seat

Another Ngruki alumni in hot seat

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A Muslim cleric has revealed that one of two Indonesians arrested
in the Philippines and charged with terrorism was a former
student at Al Mukmin Ngruki Islamic Boarding School in Surakarta.

The person in question, Mohammed Yusop Karim Faiz, had studied
there for four years, although he did not finish high school,
said Sholeh Ibrahim, the senior cleric at the boarding school,
which was founded by terror suspect Abu Bakar Ba'asyir.

Faiz was arrested along with another Indonesian, Mohammad
Nasir Hamid, in the southern city of Zamboanga in December for
alleged possession of explosives and an apparent plan to attack
public facilities in the neighboring country.

However, the arrest of the two Indonesians, who have also been
accused of being members of the regional terror group Jamaah
Islamiyah (JI), was only made public last week.

Sholeh said that Faiz started his studies at Al Mukmin
Ngruki's junior high school in 1990 and completed junior high in
1994. He continued to study in the high school but dropped out
after the first year in 1995. "I don't know where he went to
study after he left this school," Sholeh said, quoted by Antara
news agency as saying.

From the information given by his family and local police,
Faiz left his hometown in Klaten, Central Java in 2001 and later
enrolled at the Ibnu Sa'ud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
During his studies there, he went home to visit his family twice
in 2002 and again in January 2003. "That was his last contact
with the family. After that, the family lost track of his
whereabouts and all of the sudden they were told that Faiz was
arrested in the Philippines," a police officer in Klaten said.

Faiz, whose birth name was Muhammad Saifudin, is the youngest
son of Basri and Sa'adah.

According to Thohir Widjaja, the head of the general affairs
office in Tempursari village, Faiz is also known to have a twin
brother named Muhammad Nurrudin, but the brother's whereabouts is
also unknown, while some people say that Nurrudin died as a "holy
warrior" fighting Christians in Ambon. Oddly, Faiz's five other
siblings have also lost contact with family and friends.

Although the Filipino authorities said that Faiz and Nasir
Hamid were working together with the local terror group -- Abu
Sayyaf -- to plan attacks in the Philippines, the Indonesian
police so far claim they know nothing about any connection
between the two suspects to Indonesian terror attacks in the last
few years.

The Al Mukmin Ngruki Islamic Boarding School has been in the
spotlight for the past few years after several of its students
were arrested for or accused of terrorism. Several former Ngruki
students, including Amrozi for example, were convicted for their
respective roles in the Bali bombing in October 2002. Some of the
former students received long jail sentence, and others are on
death row. That attack claimed the lives of over 200 people.

Not only the students, but the founder of the school, Abu
Bakar Ba'asyir, has also been charged with have a role in terror
activities. After being acquitted last year, Ba'asyir was
rearrested and put back on trial for allegedly leading his JI
followers to perpetrate the Bali bombings and a deadly bomb
attack on the Jakarta's Marriott hotel.