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| Southeast Asia |
| Prosecutors Seek Life Term for Bali Bombmaker |
| 2012-05-22 |
| Indonesian prosecutors on Monday asked for a life sentence rather than the death penalty for Umar Patek, the bombmaker accused of being behind the Bali attacks that killed 202 people. When the trial started in February prosecutors had said they would seek capital punishment for Patek, who was held last year in the Pak town of Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... , four months before al-Qaeda chief the late Osama bin Laden ... who can now be reached at RFD Boneyard... was killed there. Prosecutor Bambang Suharyadi told the West Jakarta District Court that Patek had been proved guilty of premeditated murder, but they were seeking a lighter sentence because he had been remorseful and cooperative. "We the prosecutors recommend... the defendant Umar Patek be given a life sentence," Suharyadi told the court. "He has been polite and cooperative during the trial and regretted what he has done." Patek, 45, is accused of assembling bombs for the attacks on two nightclubs on the resort island on October 12, 2002 which killed many Western tourists, including 88 Australians, and on churches in Jakarta on Christmas Eve 2000. Patek on Monday repeated an apology he made earlier this month to the relatives of the dead. "I regret what I have done... (and) I apologize to the families of victims who died -- Indonesians and foreigners," he said. Patek is accused of being the expert bombmaker for Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a Southeast Asian terror network linked to Al-Qaeda. He denies he led the bombmaking for the Bali attacks, admitting to playing only a small role. He confessed to mixing the chemicals for the explosives, but claimed he did not know how the bombs would be used. Patek allegedly used simple household tools including a rice ladle to assemble the Bali bombs, which according to the court indictment were housed in ordinary filing cabinets. He was tossed in the clink I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! in Abbottabad in January last year. Evidence in the trial suggested bin Laden gave JI $30,000 to wage jihad in the region and Patek might have met him in the Pak town -- a claim he has repeatedly denied. |
| Posted by:Fred |