05.33 pm, Friday May 25 2012

Alleged Bali bomber to face court Monday

19:44 AEDT Thu Feb 9 2012
Karlis Salna, AAP South-East Asia Correspondent
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The trial of key Jemaah Islamiah operative Umar Patek in relation to a string of terrorism offences, including the 2002 Bali bombings, will begin in Jakarta next week.

Prosecutors, who earlier this week handed over a 50-page indictment against Patek over a string of terrorism offences dating back more than a decade, have confirmed the trial will begin in the West Jakarta District Court on Monday.

Patek, who is accused of building the devices used in the bombing a decade ago of the Sari Club and Paddy's Bar in the popular nightclub area of Kuta, killing 202 people including 88 Australians, will face six charges.

The 41-year-old won't be charged with terrorism offences over the 2002 attacks because Indonesia's tough anti-terrorism laws, introduced in 2003, cannot be applied retrospectively.

He will, however, be charged with mass murder over the Bali bombings.

The murder charges will extend to his alleged role in a series of bombings of churches in Indonesia in 2000.

If found guilty of the murder charges he could be sentenced to death.

He will also face terrorism charges over a number of other alleged offences.

The indictment lists charges of conspiracy to commit terrorism, harbouring information on terrorism, possession of explosives and firearms, as well as two counts of document fraud.

Patek spent almost 10 years at the top of South-East Asia's most-wanted list before his capture in January 2011 in Abbottabad, the same Pakistani town where US forces killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden last May.

He is last of the key members of Jemaah Islamiah (JI) - the group behind the Bali bombings - to face justice over what remains Indonesia's most deadly terrorist attack.

His trial comes after the conviction last year of high-profile JI co-founder and the spiritual leader of the jihadist movement in Indonesia, Abu Bakar Bashir, following the discovery of a secret paramilitary training camp in Aceh.

The bespectacled cleric served almost 26 months behind bars for conspiracy over the 2002 Bali bombings but that conviction was later overturned.

The trial, which will be conducted amid heavy security, is expected to run until late May or early June.

 

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