Bali bombers celebrated their deadly plot

12 Feb 2012, 2:26 pm   -   Source: AAP
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Umar Patek (AAP)

Umar Patek (AAP)

Alleged terrorist Umar Patek celebrated the success of the 2002 Bali bombings a week after the attacks killed 202 people, prosecutors say.

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The key terror group behind the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings met a week later to gloat over the attacks that claimed 202 lives, prosecutors say.

Umar Patek, accused of building the devices used in the bombing of the Sari Club and Paddy's Bar in the popular tourist area of Kuta, will be the last of plot masterminds to face justice over Indonesia's deadliest terrorist attack.

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.

His trial will begin in the West Jakarta District Court on Monday amid heavy security, with the reading of a long indictment listing six charges - a number of them carry the death penalty - related to a string of terrorism offences dating back more than a decade.

The 45-year-old will be charged with premeditated murder in connection with the 2002 Bali outrage whose victims were mostly foreigners, including 88 Australians.

The pre-meditated murder charge will extend to his alleged role in a series of bombings of churches in Indonesia in 2000 which killed 18 people.

While many of the families and loved ones of those killed in Bali 10 years ago, as well as survivors, remained in a state of shock in the week after the bombings, the plotters gathered in a house at Solo in Java, which was rented by bombing mastermind Abdul Matin, otherwise known as Dulmatin.

Prosecutors will tell the court that at that meeting, the week after the bombings, Patek and his co-conspirators congratulated each other on their efforts.

"One week after the bombing in Bali, the defendant came to a meeting held in Dulmatin's house," the indictment says.

"The meeting was led by Mukhlas and attended by Amrozi, Imam Samudra, Dulmatin, Ali Imron, Sawad, Abdul Goni, Idris and the defendant, where they talked about the success of the bombing in Bali."

Amrozi, Samudra and Mukhlas, whose real name is Ali Ghufron, were subsequently executed while Dulmatin was killed in an ambush by Indonesian anti-terrorism forces on the outskirts of Jakarta in March 2010.

The indictment will also allege Patek agreed to mix the explosives for the Bali bombings in an earlier meeting at Dulmatin's house in Solo.

"When the defendant was in Dulmatin's rent house, the defendant met Imam Samudra, who asked him to (join in a plot) to kill foreign tourists in Bali using a bomb," the indictment says.

"In that meeting, Imam Samudra asked the defendant to mix the explosives which would be used for bombing."

Evidence from up to 80 witnesses, including testimony already gathered from Australian and American survivors, will be used by a team of 15 prosecutors assembled for the case.

Imron, who was at the celebration meeting a week after the bombings and who is serving life in prison for his role in the attacks, will also testify against Patek.

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

The trial is expected to run until late May or early June.

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