https://www.benarnews.org/english/n...ect-indonesia-philippines-01152021160026.html
A young Indonesian who was arrested in the southern Philippines on suspicion of preparing for a suicide bombing mission claimed that her now-dead parents had compelled her to join the Islamic State group, the region’s top military commander told BenarNews.
Rezky Fantasya Rullie (alias Cici and Nini Isarani) – who is believed to be in her teens or early twenties – was allowed to meet with Indonesian Consul-General Dicky Fabrian on Wednesday, said Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan, the chief of the military’s Western Mindanao Command who attended the meeting.
“The meeting was private, in the confinement areas where Cici is being held,” Vinluan said Friday. “The suspect detailed her forced joining into the militant group.”
Rullie’s Indonesian parents both blew themselves up in a twin-bombing at a church on Jolo Island in the southern Philippines two years ago, according to Philippine authorities. Rullie herself was allegedly being groomed to become a suicide bomber, officials here said.
Last October, Philippine troops arrested Rullie with two Filipinas suspected of plotting suicide attacks and who were married to members of the Abu Sayyaf Group, a pro-Islamic State (IS) group based in the Philippine south.
Vinluan said Fabrian wanted to meet with Rullie to make sure “if she is really an Indonesian” by seeing her in person. The meeting took place at the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group detention facility in southern Zamboanga city, where she is being held.
“Cici narrated that, at first, she was not aware and then there was this forced marriage to one of the suicide bombers,” Vinluan told BenarNews. He was referring to Andi Baso, a suspected Indonesian suicide bomber in training who is believed to have been slain by Philippine government troops in August 2020. However, his body has not been recovered….
The discussion between Fabrian and Rullie delved into her personal life – “how she came here, and how many times she went to the mountains,” Vinluan said.
Her parents – Rullie Rian Zeke and Ulfah Handayani Saleh – killed themselves in a twin-bomb attack at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel church in Jolo town during a Sunday Mass service in January 2019. The bombing killed 23 people in all.
Vinluan said the young militant was brought to Jolo by her parents, and that two of her siblings, a 10-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl, remained somewhere in a mountainous area on Jolo Island. The military had earlier said that Rullie was in her teens or early twenties.
Rullie and Baso were believed to have been under the wing of Mundi Sawadjaan, a bomb-maker who masterminded another attack that killed 15 people near the same church last August, officials said….
A young Indonesian who was arrested in the southern Philippines on suspicion of preparing for a suicide bombing mission claimed that her now-dead parents had compelled her to join the Islamic State group, the region’s top military commander told BenarNews.
Rezky Fantasya Rullie (alias Cici and Nini Isarani) – who is believed to be in her teens or early twenties – was allowed to meet with Indonesian Consul-General Dicky Fabrian on Wednesday, said Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan, the chief of the military’s Western Mindanao Command who attended the meeting.
“The meeting was private, in the confinement areas where Cici is being held,” Vinluan said Friday. “The suspect detailed her forced joining into the militant group.”
Rullie’s Indonesian parents both blew themselves up in a twin-bombing at a church on Jolo Island in the southern Philippines two years ago, according to Philippine authorities. Rullie herself was allegedly being groomed to become a suicide bomber, officials here said.
Last October, Philippine troops arrested Rullie with two Filipinas suspected of plotting suicide attacks and who were married to members of the Abu Sayyaf Group, a pro-Islamic State (IS) group based in the Philippine south.
Vinluan said Fabrian wanted to meet with Rullie to make sure “if she is really an Indonesian” by seeing her in person. The meeting took place at the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group detention facility in southern Zamboanga city, where she is being held.
“Cici narrated that, at first, she was not aware and then there was this forced marriage to one of the suicide bombers,” Vinluan told BenarNews. He was referring to Andi Baso, a suspected Indonesian suicide bomber in training who is believed to have been slain by Philippine government troops in August 2020. However, his body has not been recovered….
The discussion between Fabrian and Rullie delved into her personal life – “how she came here, and how many times she went to the mountains,” Vinluan said.
Her parents – Rullie Rian Zeke and Ulfah Handayani Saleh – killed themselves in a twin-bomb attack at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel church in Jolo town during a Sunday Mass service in January 2019. The bombing killed 23 people in all.
Vinluan said the young militant was brought to Jolo by her parents, and that two of her siblings, a 10-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl, remained somewhere in a mountainous area on Jolo Island. The military had earlier said that Rullie was in her teens or early twenties.
Rullie and Baso were believed to have been under the wing of Mundi Sawadjaan, a bomb-maker who masterminded another attack that killed 15 people near the same church last August, officials said….
