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| Southeast Asia |
| Bali bomb builder will retrace his steps |
| 2011-10-19 |
| Terror suspect Umar Patek will return today to the sites in Bali where the bombs he made nine years ago killed more than 200 people. Patek, held in Jakarta since his extradition from Pakistan in August, has admitted to having built the bombs. He will re-enact for police what he did during the final hours before the series of bombs were detonated on the night of October 12, 2002. As part of that re-enactment, he will be taken to the site where the Sari Club once stood. The nightclub was flattened when a car bomb was set off by a suicide bomber just outside. He will show police where and how he and his co-conspirators finished the explosive devices used for the attacks, as investigators look to build up a case against him. Patek arrived in Bali amid tight security yesterday, along with others already convicted in the 2002 attacks. Yesterday, a police spokesman said, "One of the locations he will be taken to tomorrow is ground zero." Patek's arrival in Bali comes after he claimed that he had attempted to stop the nightclub attacks from going ahead. In comments published by the Jakarta Globe, Patek claimed he warned Bali bomb co-ordinator Imam Samudra to cancel the attack in favor of the jihad in Pakistan. He told the newspaper, "I only advised him, but the planning for the Bali bombing was almost done and could not possibly be cancelled. "I wanted to live and wage jihad in Afghanistan. It is a jihad area because Muslims have indisputably been colonised by America and NATO." Investigators have cast doubt on these comments and contend that Patek was a central figure in the attack. Authorities have previously admitted their chances of pursuing a terrorism case against Patek are limited because the tough anti-terrorism laws introduced in Indonesia in 2003 cannot be applied retrospectively. It is more likely he will be charged with premeditated murder and possession of explosives, as well as a number of other relatively minor offenses. The murder charges will probably extend to a series of bombings of churches in Indonesian cities on Christmas Eve in 2000. |
| Posted by:ryuge |