News that Bali bombmaker Umar Patek was to be released after serving only 10 years of his 20-year sentence sparked outrage.
Patek claims he has been rehabilitated after undergoing "deradicalisation" programs while in prison.
He said he wants to work with young convicted terrorists once he is released to help stamp out radicalism in Indonesia.
"I'd like to help the government to educate people about the issue, for millennials and maybe terror inmates in prisons," he said.
So what's actually involved in these deradicalisation programs and do they work?
'Problems in society are not black and white'
Two institutions run the main deradicalisation programs in Indonesia's prisons: Indonesia's National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) and the Indonesian Police special anti-terror detachment, or Densus.
Sofyan Tsauri, a former police officer who became a weapons supplier and trainer for Al Qaeda, was arrested in 2010 and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
He was paroled in 2015 after participating in deradicalisation programs run by both.
He told the ABC visits by Densus and the BNPT to his prison "opened up dialogue and discussion about our radical understanding and nationalism".
Tsauri underwent a range of courses from conflict management to empathy development, which he said left a strong impression and opened his eyes.
Religious figures also provided new perspectives on religious practices and tolerance.
"I came to understand that social problems in society are not black and white, there are compromises and accommodations in overcoming differences in society," he said.
"When I was a terrorist, I used to feel that I was thinking exactly … basically if I am right you are wrong, and vice versa."
Dyah Ayu Kartika, a researcher from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) Jakarta, said the BNPT program included courses on identification, rehabilitation, re-education and re-socialisation conducted at a deradicalisation centre in West Java and in prisons.
"According to the inmates who [participated] in prison, the program was not particularly intensive, and usually in the form of lectures," Ms Kartika said.
The deradicalisation program run by Densus focused on convicted terrorists in the maximum and super-maximum security prisons, she said.
"They target the main terrorist figures, and usually their approach is more personal, because these terrorists were arrested by the Densus so they know exactly their profiles, what their personalities are like, and how they can be approached," she said.
Not all programs equally effective
Hendro Fernando joined the Islamic State-affiliated Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT) in 2014 and was then arrested in 2016, one day after the Thamrin Jakarta bombing.
Also known as Abu Jasyi, he was sentenced to six years and two months for supplying firearms, recruiting and sending hundreds of Indonesian citizens to Syria, and fundraising for MIT.
Like Tsauri, Fernando underwent a deradicalisation program before he was given remission and released after serving four years and 10 months in prison.
But Fernando said not all of the deradicalisation programs he received were effective.
"When I was detained at the Gunung Sindur Prison, for example, the officers preached the ideology of Pancasila [Indonesia's five foundational philosophical principles], while at that time my ideology was still strong and radical … in the end I was very resistant," he said.
Fernando said it was only when he was transferred to the super-maximum security prison in Nusa Kambangan that he was deradicalised.
"There was a program called 'Safari Da'wah' initiated by Densus three times a week, and carried out by terrorist convicts who had returned to being loyal to Indonesia but were still in prison," he said.
He said this approach using fellow terrorist convicts was more effective.
"I feel the atmosphere was more fluid than when I met with the counterterrorism agency officers or the Ministry of Religion, so I felt comfortable exchanging ideas," he said.
Colour-coded terrorists
Ms Kartika said convicted terrorists were classified by the authorities into red, yellow and green categories.
Red is for those who are still extremists with radical views and are considered uncooperative.
Green is for those who are cooperative and usually have denounced their extremism by pledging loyalty to the Republic of Indonesia.
"This categorisation is used to determine what kind of prisons they will be placed in, what programs will be provided and what rights can be given to them," Ms Kartika said.
Tsauri, who himself now works to deradicalise extremists, said program participants' progress was assessed using a series of questions.
"For example, in the past, when asked who your idol was, as a radical terrorist, the answer might be Osama or other jihadist figures, but after joining the program, my answer was changed to Islamic leaders who fought for Indonesian independence like Hasyim Azhari," he said.
Relaxed rules and increased rights were incentives, Fernando added.
"[After being classified green] we are no longer placed in solitary confinement, we are allowed to meet guests other than our immediate family, and so on," he said.
Greg Barton, a professor in Global Islamic Politics from Deakin University, said Australia had programs with similar aims such as the Court Integrated Services Program (CISP) in Victoria and the Proactive Integrated Support Model (PRISM) in NSW.
"Both programs don't use the language of deradicalisation, but use the language of disengagement and rehabilitation, and then [are] probably more well rounded and comprehensive programs than Indonesia has at the moment," Professor Barton said.
"It's not that Indonesia isn't doing good work … but it's not communicated very clearly, it's not very transparent, and it would be good to see some of the cooperation we saw before in Australia and Indonesia."
'He's lost credibility with his old networks'
Umar Patek was one of 16,659 prisoners in East Java who last week received general remission to mark Indonesia's 77th Independence Day and became eligible for parole.
He was originally sentenced in 2012 for his role in the bombings that killed more than 200 people, including 88 Australians.
He was also found guilty of weapons and conspiracy charges over a terrorist training camp in Aceh in 2009, and for mixing explosives for a series of Christmas Eve attacks on churches in 2000.
He told local media he had been working with deradicalisation programs in prison for the past eight years.
Like Tsauri and Fernando, who have already been released, Patek will undergo mandatory reporting and continue to be monitored.
"For three years after being released on parole I was obliged to report every month to the local prison," Tsauri said.
He also said officers periodically came to his residence to check on his activities after being released.
According to IPAC, at least 850 convicted terrorists have been released during the last decade, either because their sentences were over or on parole.
Muhamad Syauqillah, a researcher from the University of Indonesia, said less than 5 per cent "relapsed" into terrorist activity.
"The deradicalisation process must not stop once someone has declared his loyalty to Indonesia … because there are cases of terrorism where the perpetrators have pledged allegiance to the Indonesian state and yet committed further acts of terrorism in the Philippines," he said.
Asked how likely it was that Patek would re-join his old terrorist network, Mr Syauqillah said it depended on how much effort the Indonesian government made in continuing the deradicalisation program outside prisons.
"Umar Patek needs to continue to be accompanied when he is out of prison so that sustainable deradicalisation continues," he said.
"It can be through the Correctional Centre or by involving other stakeholders through nationalism, religion and entrepreneurship approaches.
"This is our homework, to determine what kind of deradicalisation program outside prison is effective for Umar Patek and what are the benchmarks."
Professor Barton said experts generally agreed that deradicalising terrorists was less important than disengaging them from their extremist networks.
"From what Umar Patek said, you would have to question where he's at in his thinking, but it does seem quite likely that he has been successfully disengaged from the networks he was involved in," he said.
"In any case, he's lost credibility with his old networks. And the extent that he tries to re-engage with them will be under surveillance. So the risks are not that high."
Meanwhile, Ms Kartika said convicted terrorists who pledged allegiance to Indonesia were usually considered by their former comrades to have betrayed their network.
"In Jemaah Islamiyah, if they are exposed to the police, they will be deactivated, and in the pro-ISIS network, pledging allegiance to Indonesia is truly hated and rejected," she said.
Ms Kartika said she understood people might be sceptical of the deradicalisation programs, but said Patek had been continuously involved in the BNPT program for years.
She added his wife, who comes from the Philippines, was given Indonesian citizenship in 2019 at Patek's request.
“This is a kind of trump card for Umar Patek's loyalty to Indonesia," she said.
