Indonesia's 'Demolition Man' to testify on Bali bombings

  • Pakatan to push for parliamentary panel to redraw seats fairly
    Pakatan to push for parliamentary panel to redraw seats fairly

    PETALING JAYA, May 24 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) wants a parliamentary select committee (PSC) as a bilateral platform to ensure a fairer constituency redelineation exercise once Parliament convenes, its leaders said last night.

  • Opposition crackdown shows reforms a lie, say Pakatan leaders
    Opposition crackdown shows reforms a lie, say Pakatan leaders

    PETALING JAYA, May 24 — The security dragnet on opposition leaders and critics this past week is the clearest sign yet that the Barisan Nasional (BN) government was never honest in wanting real political reforms, Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders told a rally here last night.

  • Tian Chua, Haris, Tamrin to be detained overnight at Jinjang
    Tian Chua, Haris, Tamrin to be detained overnight at Jinjang

    KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lawmakers Chua Tian Chang and Tamrin Ghafar, and political activist Haris Ibrahim, have been arrested for sedition and will be held overnight at the police lockup in Jinjang today.

  • Bar suggests new laws to give MACC more power
    Bar suggests new laws to give MACC more power

    KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 — The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) should be given more power to fight graft with the introduction of new legislation, the Malaysian Bar has said.

  • May 25 rally to proceed despite arrests, vows SAMM
    May 25 rally to proceed despite arrests, vows SAMM

    The 'People's Gathering' in front of the Amcorp Mall field in Petaling Jaya on Saturday will go ahead despite the police arresting several leaders of opposition political parties and non-governmental organisations today.

A suspected bombmaker dubbed "Demolition Man", arrested in the Pakistani town where Osama bin Laden was killed, is to testify Monday on his role in Indonesia's deadliest attacks -- the 2002 Bali bombings.

Umar Patek, 45, is accused of assembling bombs in the attacks on two nightclubs in Bali on October 12, 2002 -- which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians -- and on churches in Jakarta on Christmas Eve in 2000.

Patek is accused of being the expert bombmaker of the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror network and faces six charges including premeditated murder, bombmaking and illegal firearms possession.

Prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty for him. Three JI members -- Mukhlas, Amrozi and Imam Samudra -- were executed by firing squad in November 2008 for their roles in the attacks.

The hearing will open at 9:00 am (0200 GMT) at the West Jakarta district court and Patek is expected to give an in-depth account of the attacks for the first time since the trial began on February 13.

During the trial, evidence emerged that bin Laden gave JI $30,000 to wage jihad in the region and Patek might have met him when he was in Abbottabad in Pakistan, a claim Patek has repeatedly denied.

Patek also denies he led the bombmaking, admitting to playing only a small role in the attacks.

But a special agent with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation Frank Pellegrino testified in April that Patek was widely-known as an expert bombmaker.

According to Pellegrino, a witness interviewed by the FBI in the Philippines reported Patek as saying he "was interested in going back to Pakistan and Afghanistan and working with Osama bin Laden".

Patek was once the most-wanted terror suspect in Indonesia and spent nearly a decade on the run with a $1 million bounty on his head by the United States under its rewards for justice programme.

Patek was arrested in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad on January 25 last year, before being extradited to Indonesia in August. In May 2011, US commandos killed bin Laden in a raid in the same garrison town.

The trial is expected to take weeks to reach a verdict.

Loading...

Comments on Yahoo! pages are subject to our link to Comments Guidelines. You are responsible for any content that you post. Yahoo! is not responsible or liable in any way for comments posted by its users. Yahoo! does not in any way endorse or support comments made by its users.