Meet the Bereaved: Jan Laczynski

Australian Jan lost five friends in the Bali bombings. A two-part Dateline special brings him face-to-face with the terrorists behind the attack that killed 88 Australians.

Source: SBS

Jan Laczynski from Melbourne treats Bali as his second home – he and his Indonesian wife Risti spend half their year there.

But on the day he departed from one of his trips in 2002, two bombs were detonated on bustling Legian Street.

Five of his good friends worked as security guards at one of the targets, the Sari Club. They were all killed.

Jan with one of the five friends who died in the Bali bombings. Source: SBS

In the first part of Dateline's Meet the Terrorists, he comes face-to-face first with Nasir Abbas, who trained the bombers.

“Do I really want to meet this guy? Do I want to go back through the emotions again?” he asks.

Jan makes a pilgrimage back to site of the Sari Club on 12th October every year to light candles for the 88 Australians and his five friends.

Abbas now works with the Indonesian authorities on deradicalisation – and he joins Jan for the candlelit vigil.

“For him to come along and offer to light some candles and say a few prayers, I felt he didn’t have to do that,” Jan says.

Jan lights candles on the anniversary every year in memory of those who died. Source: SBS

But the second meeting is much more confronting for him, as he puts his questions to the last surviving member of the bombers’ inner circle, Ali Imron.

Jan attended all of the Bali bombing trials – he yelled out to Imron then but didn’t get a response, so now is his chance.

“I don’t want to be in that same room, shake his hand, but at the same time I want to know why did he kill my mates?”

“Are you really sorry? How do you sleep at night?” he asks him in the second part of Dateline’s story.

“For the people that are still hurting, I’m going to ask those questions, and if it brings some comfort or closure, great,” Jan says.

“It’s the hardest thing I’ll ever do in my life, and I won’t ever do it again.”