Indonesia court convicts militant for making Bali bombs
Umar Patek (left) talks with his lawyers after the judge delivered the verdict against him. — Reuters picJAKARTA, June 21 — A court in Jakarta today convicted a militant for making the bombs that killed 202 people at Bali nightclubs in 2002 and sentenced him to 20 years in the final trial of those responsible for Indonesia’s worst terror attack.
Umar Patek was found guilty on all six charges at a court surrounded by snipers and bomb disposal experts.
Aside from his role in the Bali bombings, he also mixed chemicals for 13 bombs that detonated in five churches in the capital on Christmas Eve in 2000 and killed around 15 people.
The Bali bombs were a watershed for Indonesia, which has the world’s largest Muslim population, forcing the secular state to confront the presence of violent militants. It has since been largely successful in containing militant attacks.
Patek, 45, was captured in the same Pakistan town where US forces killed Osama bin Laden, and security officials say he belonged to the banned Jemaah Islamiah group linked to al Qaeda. — Reuters
