A court has
found Umar Patek guilty for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings. The verdict
concludes a 10-year probe into Indonesia’s deadliest act of terrorism.
After his
four-month trial, Patek, called "Demolition Man" by Indonesian media,
will serve a 20-year jail sentence. He had faced charges including premeditated
murder, illegal firearms possession and murder.
Because he
showed remorse during the trial, prosecutors had sought a life sentence,
sparing Patek, the final suspect in Indonesian custody to be tried for the
attacks, the penalty of death by firing squad. Claiming that he had been
against the attacks from the beginning, Patek apologized to victims and their
families for helping to assemble the explosives that killed more than 200
people in twin suicide bombings at a bar and a nightclub.
"Indonesians
and the international community have long waited for this case to be
over," Bambang Suharyadi, the prosecutor, said last month.
Patek had
spent eight years as Indonesia's most-wanted terror suspect, evading a $1
million US bounty, before finally being arrested in January 2011 in Abbottabad,
Pakistan, where Navy SEALs would kill Osama bin Laden just four months later.
He was extradited to Indonesia last August.
Indonesia
could not charge Patek for the attacks under the country's terrorism laws, first
implemented in 2003.
Patek
testified that he played a minor role in assembling the explosives, saying he
mixed only 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of chemicals out of a ton, and denied
having any expertise in making bombs.
In 2008,
Indonesia executed three men for their roles in the Bali attacks. Several
others have been jailed, including the bomb maker Ali Imron, who was given a
life sentence for helping build and deliver bombs.
The only
suspect yet to be tried is Riduan Isamuddin, known as Hambali, who allegedly
helped orchestrate the attacks and has been detained at the US naval base at
Guantanamo Bay since 2006, accused of having financial links to al Qaeda.
mkg/sej (AFP, Reuters, AP, dpa)
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