Insisting that his role was minor and that he was remorseful over the
devastation, Bali suspect
Umar Patek,
on trial for his alleged role in the 2002 Bali
bombings, told the West Jakarta District Court Thursday (May 31st)
that he felt deep remorse over the terror attack. Insisting that his role in
the plot had been a minor one, he asked the judges for leniency.
"I felt so upset and guilty when I saw the
bomb killed many people. I said to [the attackers] that it was my last
involvement in this kind of activity," he told the court.
"It
needs to be understood that whether I came or I did not come to Bali, the 2002
Bali bomb incident would have still happened because they had been working on
their plan. The bomb which was detonated on October 12th, 2002 was not due to
my active involvement, because I had been strongly against the idea,"
Patek said.
He said he
had mixed only 50kg of chemicals, compared to the remaining 950kg prepared by others,
and that he had done so with reluctance. The plot was "against my
conscience", the defendant said, reiterating his earlier expressions of
regret.
A total of
202 people died as bombs went off in quick succession at two locations. The
first, hidden in a suicide bomber's backpack, exploded at Paddy's Pub in the
Kuta nightclub district. Twenty seconds later, a massive car bomb destroyed the
nearby Sari Club and surrounding areas.
Patek –
dubbed "Demolition Man" in the media – had begun his trial with the
reputation of having masterminded the attack, but his defense team has argued
this was far from the case.
Reading from
a 31-page, handwritten defense statement which he said took him two weeks to
prepare, Patek drew a sharp comparison between himself and Muhammad Ihsan, also
known as Idris, who received a 10-year sentence for his role in the 2003
bombing of Jakarta's JW Marriott Hotel but acquitted in the Bali attack.
Idris, he
alleged, knew what the Bali bombing targets were, had surveyed the area, and
received as much as $30,000 to aid with the plot -- whereas he, Patek, was
mostly in the dark. He voiced hope that the judges would give him a proportionately
lighter sentence.
"All
this time, the mass media have been reporting that I had a big role in the
incident, as if I was the one who assembled [the bomb], Patek told a press
conference after the hearing. "But the trial's facts have proved that my
role is minor… I am only a deer, not an elephant."
In a trial
session on Monday, Patek's attorneys recommended that he be jailed for less
than fifteen years. The prosecution disagreed, however, saying a life sentence
was appropriate.
The demand
for a longer sentence is "based on the facts during the hearing,"
prosecutor Bambang Haryadi told reporters, rejecting a claim by Patek that his
team had not considered what came to light in the trial.
The trial proceedings
will resume on 4 June.
