Bali bomber
February 13, 2012
Amid a security lockdown, with anti-terrorism units deployed in the capital, Jakarta, 45-year-old Umar Patek arrived in court, giving a thumbs-up gesture with his handcuffed hands.
Patek is accused of mixing chemicals for 13 bombs that detonated in five churches in the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Christmas Eve in 2000, killing 15 people, and of making the bombs that exploded at Bali nightclubs packed mostly with tourists in 2002, leaving 202 people dead, and injuring dozens of others.
He is charged with premeditated murder and faces five other counts of illegal bomb-making and possession of firearms.
Damning indictment
Reading a portion of the indictment, prosecutor Widodo Supriady said the defendant had committed an "evil conspiracy to carry out terrorism."
"The defendant manufactured 700 kilograms of explosive with potassium nitrate, sulfur and powdered aluminum. Together with [co-conspirators] Azahari and Sawad, the defendant then filled the powder in four containers," the prosecutor said.
Azahari, a Malaysian bomb-maker was killed in 2005 during a shootout with the police in Indonesia.
"The defendant mixed gun powder and divided it up into two parts; each with one kilogram explosive packed into a napkin holder and four kilograms of explosive in a tote bag," Supriady added.
Arrested in Pakistan
The trail of Patek, believed to be a key member of the al Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian terror network, Jemaah Islamiyah, is expected to last more than four months as prosecutors present evidence from 86 witnesses.
The indictment states that Patek was instructed by fellow Indonesian Imam Samudra to assemble the bombs for the Bali attacks. Samudra, convicted of being one of the masterminds behind the deadly attack, was executed in Indonesia by firing squad in 2008.
Riduan Ismudin, also known as Hambali, and widely regarded as the real brains behind the attacks, was arrested in 2003 and is being held by US forces at Guantanamo Bay.
Umar Patek, once the most wanted terror suspect in Indonesia, spent nearly a decade on the run before being arrested in January, 2011 - ironically in the same Pakistani town of Abbottabad, where US commandos killed al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in May of that year.
Author: Gregg Benzow (AP, AFP, Reuters)
Editor: Sarah Berning