Yudi Lukito Kurniawan: AQAP-Trained Indonesian Terrorist Arrested

Executive Summary:

• Indonesia captured former Jemaah Islamiya (JI) jihadist Yudi Lukito Kurniawan (YLK) in August 2024. YLK trained with JI veterans and Moro Islamic Liberation Front fighters for many years, but failed to attack the Singaporean exchange in 2015, after which time he remained at large in Indonesia.
• In July 2024, JI’s highest-ranking members formally announced that they were disbanding the group, which is expected to reduce the threat of Islamist terrorism in Indonesia.

In August 2024, Indonesian jihadist Yudi Lukito Kurniawan (YLK) was captured by the country’s elite Densus 88 counterterrorism unit. YLK operated from the late 1990s on with Jemaah Islamiya (JI), the group that conducted the infamous Bali bombings in October 12, 2002 that killed 202 (tempo.co, October 13, 2022). Indonesian jihadist groups like JI are no longer conducting large-scale attacks like in the early 2000s. Moreover, since the fall of the Islamic State’s caliphate in Syria in 2019, Indonesians rarely travel abroad as foreign fighters. However, the case of YLK demonstrates that there are still Indonesians operating globally who have ties to JI and Indonesia’s pre-9/11 jihadist movement (tempo.co, September 2, 2024). His prolific career shines a light on the various pathways Indonesians have taken to partake in the global jihadist movement, and his arrest is indicative of Indonesia’s successful efforts to stamp out jihadist groups and their offshoots in the country.

YLK began his career with JI veterans of the Soviet–Afghan War at Camp Hudaibiyah in the Philippines from 1998 to 2000, which was formed as a training center by secessionist Muslim Moro Islamic Liberation Front fighters (The Sydney Morning Herald, October 2, 2024). After completing his training, YLK returned to East Java in Indonesia, where he joined another training program, JI’s “Muqoyama Badar” (Badr Resistance) Phase 2 (Jakarta Globe, September 3, 2024). This coincided with JI’s most lethal attacks, including the Bali bombings of 2002 and 2005 as well as the group’s other embassy and hotel bombings in Jakarta (The Straits Times [Singapore], August 6, 2014).

YLK was first arrested in 2003 for the possession of firearms given to him by one of the convicted Bali bombers (Jakarta Globe, September 3, 2024; Channel News Asia, September 3, 2024). He was released from prison after a short time, however, and subsequently joined Jemaah Anshorut Tauhid (JAT), a JI splinter group. After this, YLK traveled to Yemen in 2012 to join al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). He was among the approximately ten Indonesians who JAT sent to AQAP in Yemen. There, YLK and his fellow jihadists could disguise themselves among the roughly 4,000 Islamic students in the country from Indonesia—while also taking advantage of ties between Yemenis, and especially Hadramawtis, and Indonesians. There is a multi-century history of migration from Hadramawt to Indonesia. Notably, the family of JI’s founder, Abubakar Baasyir, is of Hadramawti origin (Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, June 27, 2024).

While at the AQAP camp in Yemen in 2015, YLK was ordered to travel to Singapore to attack the country’s SGX Centre, home of the Singaporean stock exchange (Deccan Herald, September 3, 2024). YLK was arrested and deported when he attempted to enter the country from the nearby Indonesian island of Batam. At that time, JI had Singapore in its crosshairs. For example, before being broken up by Densus 88, another Batam-based cell had plans to bomb Singapore’s famous Marina Bay Sands hotel (The Straits Times [Singapore], June 7, 2017). Following this, YLK was sent back to Indonesia.

YLK remained at large until his arrest in Sulawesi in September 2024. In July 2024, JI’s highest-ranking members formally announced that they were disbanding the group after roughly three decades in operation (The Soufan Center, September 26, 2024). The former leaders further swore their allegiance to the Indonesian government and claimed to have moved away from hardline Islamism (South China Morning Post, July 28, 2024). JI’s disbandment may have left YLK vulnerable and easily apprehended, leading to his arrest.