3 Indonesians deported for supporting al-Qaida

Three Indonesian migrants who were illegally residing in Korea have been deported on suspicion of supporting an international terrorist group affiliated with al-Qaida, South Korea’s spy agency said Tuesday. 

The government deported a 32-year-old Indonesian man from South Korea on Dec. 1 and two others whose identities were withheld on Nov. 24 for violating the Immigration Control Act, the National Intelligence Service said. 

The 32-year-old Indonesian, suspected for having supported the al-Nusra Front, a Syrian branch of al-Qaida, had written on Facebook that he would join a jihadist move to conduct terror attacks and conduct a suicide bombing. 

He also allegedly raised funds through a bank account to financially support jihadist fighters. A jihadist flag was found at his residence in North Gyeongsang Province, the spy agency said. 

Two others, who were deported in November, are friends of another 32-year-old Indonesian currently being detained and questioned by the police here over his link to the al-Nusra front, according to the spy agency.

Five days after the deadly Paris attack on Nov. 13, the NIS announced it had apprehended the Indonesian, who entered Korea on a fake passport in 2007, earlier in the month in South Chungcheong Province on charges of violating the immigration law and forging documents. 

He was found to have posted a video clip of himself waving the terrorist group’s flag atop a local mountain and a photo wearing a cap with the group’s logo on social media in April. He also wrote that he would join the Syrian War.

Al-Nusra, which was founded in Syria in 2011 at the command of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, aims to establish an Islamist state in Syria, mostly through carrying out bombing, guerilla and suicide attacks. It has grown into an international terrorist group with an estimated 10,000 members.

The spy agency has arrested or deported 48 foreigners in Korea suspected of being linked to international terrorist groups or viewed as security risks since 2010. 

By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)