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| Ali Imron was spared the death penalty because he was remorseful. (AP Photo) |
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If ever he
gets out of prison, convicted Bali bomber Ali Imron wants to go to Australia.
“I want to
offer my apologies to the victims’ families in their homeland,” he tells The
Sunday Times in an interview at his Jakarta detention center.
The
42-year-old was sentenced to life in prison nine years ago, for his role in the
October 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali that killed 202 people, including 88
Australians.
He also
wants to tell young militants that violent jihad should be waged only in a war
zone or an area where Muslims are being attacked or killed. That would rule out
Indonesia.
Unlike his
older brothers Mukhlas and Amrozi, and accomplice Imam Samudra — who were all
executed by firing squad in 2008 — Ali Imron was spared the death penalty
because he was remorseful and cooperative during investigations.
Police
raids netted dozens of suspects who were members of the Jemaah Islamiah (JI)
regional terrorist network, into which Ali Imron was recruited by his brothers.
He spent two weeks in Singapore in 1991, staying with Mukhlas’ friends while
waiting for a visa to go to Pakistan, where JI members were trained in handling
weapons and explosives.
Arrested in
January 2003 while on the run in East Kalimantan, he was tried, convicted of
helping to assemble the bombs and sentenced that September. Since then, he has
been tapped to help counter-terrorism authorities in their investigations.
These days,
Ali Imron appeals to militants and would-be terrorists to think long and hard
about the damage caused by bombings and how such attacks hinder rather than
help their cause.
At his
trial, he told the court he realized, belatedly, that the Bali bombings had
violated the principles of jihad.
He now says
there are many forms of jihad, and the most appropriate for Indonesia is to
campaign for the government to adopt Islamic law.
To those
who doubt his expressed remorse, he says: “How can you say I’m faking it? I was
called a traitor and my old friends declared my blood as halal.” Halal means
permissible in Islam.
Some
militants declared it would be legitimate to kill him.
On the
night of Oct. 12, 2002, Ali Imron drove a minivan to a nightclub the group had
targeted. He handed the vehicle to the bomber, whom he had taught how to set
off the bomb.
He claimed
he was just following the orders of his eldest brother, senior JI member
Mukhlas, and that he had tried to persuade the others to abort the mission but
was overruled by Mukhlas.
“My
thinking at that time was that Mukhlas was doing work that was in line with our
network’s aspirations, which meant that we all had to support it,” he said.
“But I realized later, it was not the case. Only about one in six members of
our network supported the act of bombing.”
Terrorism
analyst Harry Purwanto said reformed terrorists like Ali Imron can be effective
in helping Indonesia curb the spread of radical ideology.
Radicalized
citizens are more willing to listen to former militants than clerics from
groups such as the moderate Islamic organization Nahdlatul Ulama, he told The
Sunday Times.
Two years
ago, non-profit organization Lazuardi Birru, which organizes activities to
counter extremism among young people, made Ali Imron the main character in a
comic book titled “Ketika Nurani Bicara” (“When The Conscience Speaks”). It
tells the story of how he was recruited and the impact of the bombings on
innocent people and their families.
Ali Imron
is seeking a presidential pardon and hopes to see his life sentence cut to 20
years. He has pledged to help the authorities continue efforts to deradicalize
young militants.
— Reprinted Courtesy The Straits Times
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