Judge: Patek can help deter youth from radical extremism

Judge: Patek can help deter youth from radical extremism

While some criticise the sentence as too light, others say Umar Patek has shown sincere remorse and can help persuade others from making the mistake that he did

The 20-year jail sentence handed down to Bali bomber Umar Patek on Thursday (June 21st) has elicited mixed reactions in Indonesia. Some say his sentence is an adequate warning to terrorists, while others insist he deserved to die for his role in ending so many lives.

"We all hoped that Patek would be given a death sentence because he helped to take hundreds of people's lives by committing acts of terrorism, and the 2002 Bali bomb was the biggest terrorism attack in Indonesia," Tony Soemarno of the Association of Bomb Victims in Indonesia (ASKOBI), told Khabar Southeast Asia.

But Noor Huda Ismail, a terrorism expert and founder of the Institute for International Peace Building, said the sentence was appropriate because Patek is a valuable source of intelligence and can help teach youth not to follow the path of extremist violence.

"I think that 20 years in prison is the correct sentence for Patek. He has given a lot of information to the police, especially about terrorist networks sending members to Mindanao, Pakistan and also Afghanistan," he told Khabar.

"His information will be very useful for the police in tracking down terrorist networks in Indonesia," Noor said of the one-time leading member of Jemaah Islamiyah, which has been linked to al-Qaeda.

Patek's public acknowledgement of regret for the terrorist acts in which he participated will help discourage young people from turning to extremism, Noor said.

"Patek has told the public that he did not agree with the 2000 church attack or the 2002 Bali bombing," he said. "And he has expressed his regret over his involvement."

The 45-year-old terrorist was convicted on six charges, including premeditated murder of the Bali victims and for bombings at six Jakarta churches on Christmas Eve in 2000, as well as identification fraud and illegal possession of firearms and explosives.

According to the indictment against him, Patek was responsible for assembling the bombs that killed 202 people, most of them foreigners, at a nightclub in Kuta, Bali in October 2002. During his trial, however, he claimed he had only a minor role in the Bali attacks, was against them "from the start" and tried to stop them at the 11th hour.

He also apologised to victims and their families, the Indonesian government and the international community.

Prosecutors had sought a life sentence because he showed remorse during the four-month trial, while Patek's attorneys asked for less than 15 years.

Encep Yuliardi, presiding judge of the five-member panel that handed down the sentence at West Jakarta District Court, said Patek had to be held accountable for his actions.

"He should know that no matter how small his role, the result was loss of lives," Encep said at the sentencing. "He says he disagreed with it, but he could have rejected it and could have considered not following the orders of his seniors, or at least reporting [the plot] to the authorities."

The bombings not only took a devastating human toll but also damaged Indonesia's economy, the judge said. However, he added, Patek's expressions of remorse and his public rejection of extremist violence were considered mitigating factors. Encep said he considered Patek's statements to be sincere.

Patek's sentence will deter others who might consider following the path of terrorism, while his example serves to show that misinterpretation of jihad creates a bad image for Islam, Encep said.

Patek: Bali bombings were "against my conscience"

Patek: Bali bombings were "against my conscience"

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.

Prosecutors seek life sentence for remorseful Patek

Prosecutors seek life sentence for remorseful Patek

On Monday (May 21st), prosecutors at West Jakarta District Court demanded a life sentence for Umar Patek, accused of involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings. The defendant again apologised to the victims and their families, as well as to the people of Bali, the Christian community and the local and national governments. [Elisabeth Oktofani/Khabar]

The accused Bali bomber's life should be spared because he regrets his actions and has co-operated with investigators, prosecutors told the West Jakarta District Court.

Prosecutors on Monday (May 21st) said accused Bali bomb maker Umar Patek should spend the rest of his life in jail, but stopped short of seeking the death penalty because they said he had been co-operative and shown remorse.

"We are recommending that Umar Patek be given a life sentence," prosecutor Bambang Suharyadi said.

Patek, on trial for his alleged role in the 2002 Bali bombings and a spate of attacks on Christian churches two years before that, repeated his apologies during his appearance at West Jakarta District Court on Monday.

"I regret what I have done... (and) I apologise to the families of victims who died -- Indonesians and foreigners," said Patek, addressing the victims, their families, the people of Bali, the Christian community, and the local and national governments. "I apologise also to victims who were injured."

According to Bambang, the defendant should be found guilty of premeditated murder and the use of explosives to commit acts of terrorism, among other charges.

The bombings claimed 202 lives and had a devastating impact on the local people, the prosecutor said, adding that they were rooted in an erroneous interpretation of Islam.

"Patek's actions, which were motivated by a wrong teaching, caused long and deep suffering among Balinese society," he said.

However, he added, Patek has acknowledged a role in the attacks and co-operated throughout the judicial process.

"On the top of that, he also regretted his involvement and apologised to the victims and their family in front of the public," Bambang added.

When his trial began in February, prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty. Imam Samudra and brothers Amrozi and Ali Ghufron, three key figures in the 2002 bombings, were convicted and executed by firing squad in November 2008.

Terrorism expert Noor Huda Ismail said it was important that Patek remain alive because of the information he could still yield, according to AFP.

"Patek is an encyclopedia of information on the who's who of al-Qaeda in Southeast Asia," said Ismail, executive director of the Institute for International Peace Building in Jakarta.

"Unlike the executed Bali bombers he showed remorse, meaning there's little chance he will try to plan future attacks from jail. He can also be used as a figure to speak out against terrorism," he said.

Patek is accused of being the expert bomb maker for the Jemaah Islamiyah terror network. Once the most wanted terror suspect in Indonesia, he spent nearly a decade on the run but was captured in January 2011 in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was holed up.

During his trial he denied playing a major role in the Bali attacks, saying he only helped mix explosives but did not know how they would be used.

The trial will resume on May 28th, when Patek's lawyers will read his defense. A verdict is expected June 21st.

Bali suspect apologizes to victims, says bombings were wrong

Bali suspect apologizes to victims, says bombings were wrong

Umar Patek, on trial for his alleged role in Indonesia's deadliest terror attack, said he was sorry "from the bottom of my heart".

Speaking at his trial on Monday (May 7th), terror suspect Umar Patek made a dramatic apology to victims of the 2002 Bali bombing, saying he was sorry he had not reported the plot to police

"From the bottom of my heart, I sincerely apologise to all the victims, victim's families, the Bali community, the Christian community in Jakarta, the Bali government and also the Indonesian government," he said, his voice breaking with emotion.

Patek, 45, is alleged to have played a key role in building the car bomb that killed over 200 people at a nightclub in Bali's Kuta area in October 2002. He faces terrorism charges that could bring him the death penalty should he be convicted.

"I was very sad and regret the incident happened, because I was against it from the start. I never agreed with their methods," said the defendant, clad in a white shirt.

He told the West Jakarta District Court that the bombings were a total failure as far as he was concerned, and that he had objected to plans drawn up by the ringleader, Ali Ghufron, also known as Mukhlas.

"Mukhlas said that their intention was to enact revenge for the massacre of Muslims in Palestine, but they targeted the wrong people," he said, adding that the Westerners and Indonesians killed by the bombings had no connection with the Palestinian issue.

Asked by presiding judge Encep Yuliadi why he did not report the plot to the police if he disagreed with it so strongly, the defendant said he was unable to leave the group and feared harassment if he turned them in.

"I could not leave because I did not have enough money to go back," Patek said. "[Senior Jemaah Islamiyah militant] Dulmatin paid for my travel expenses and I only had Rp 10,000 (around $10) in my pocket as I had left my money with my wife before I went."

"Apart from that, if I reported the plan to the police, there would be a great slander against me among the Muslim activists," he added.

Patek was arrested in January 2011 in Abbottabad, Pakistan – the same city where bin Laden was hiding out at the time of his killing in May of last year. Although many have speculated that the Java native was hoping to meet the late al-Qaeda leader, Patek has denied knowing he was there.

During the course of his trial, two former associates testified that al-Qaeda sent the Bali bomb plotters as much as $30,000 – money which paid for the Mitsubishi used in the attack.

Patek insisted again Monday that he had never met bin Laden in person. While acknowledging that he helped mix the explosives, he insisted that his participation was minimal and occurred under duress.

"As [Bali plotter] Sawat knew that I was really against the idea, he said to me that it is better for me to do what they said because I was just a slave and I could not push them to change their plan," Patek said.

"I think this is my destiny that I have been captured and I am ready to take all the responsibility for my involvement," he told the court. "Once again, I apologise to all the victims and their families."

"I also thank the Indonesian government for bringing my wife and me back to Indonesia so the legal process could be conducted here," Patek said.

The trial proceedings will resume on May 21st.

Witness: Patek said terror attacks were against Islam

Witness: Patek said terror attacks were against Islam

Bali bombing suspect Umar Patek was concerned that violence against civilians went against Islamic teachings and created a bad image for Muslims, according to a fellow militant who testified at his trial

Umar Patek disagreed with the extremist programme of carrying out violent attacks because he felt it represented a misinterpretation of jihad and would create a bad image for Muslims, an ex-militant told the West Jakarta District Court on Thursday (April 3rd).

Patek, alleged to have played a key role in building the car bomb that killed 202 people at a nightclub in Bali's Kuta area in October 2002, faces terrorism charges that could bring him the death penalty should he be convicted.

According to a court document, Patek fled to the Philippines after the 2002 blast and joined the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which has been waging an armed campaign for autonomy. The Philippines insurgents, who deny being connected to al-Qaeda or Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), are currently in peace negotiations with the Philippines government.

"I did not know if Patek was involved in the 2002 Bali bomb attack because he never told me about it," testified Iqbal Huseini, an Indonesian jihadist, who joined the MILF in 2003.

"But he always said that he disagreed with all the attack programmes in Indonesia because Indonesia is not a war zone and it is against the message of jihad," he said.

Moreover, Iqbal said, Patek on one occasion quarreled with JI cell leader Sayid Ali, nicknamed Dulmatin, over the latter's plan to explode bombs at several locations as a form of revenge against Indonesian security forces.

"Although Sayid was the leader, Patek was strongly against the idea. It was because those targeted points are Islam-majority areas and he reminded us that our enemy is not civil society," he continued.

Mass casualty attacks by al-Qaeda-linked extremists jolted Indonesia during the past decade, but the capture or killing of key JI leaders as well as public revulsions against the carnage has blunted the trend.

Al-Qaeda itself is believed to be in disarray, suffering the loss of personnel and a steadily deteriorating reputation among Muslims. Thursday's testimony came amid revelations that Osama bin Laden himself was deeply concerned about the trend during the months leading up to his death in May 2011.

A selection of memos found at the bin Laden's Abbottabad hideout was released Thursday by the US government. In one document, dating from 2010, bin Laden expresses alarm that al-Qaeda has become stigmatised because of its role in killing thousands of Muslim civilians.

A 2006 letter addressed by a "loving brother whom you know and who knows you" complains that the word jihad has fallen into disrepute due to al-Qaeda's tactics, and calls for bin Laden to change his ways.

Although Patek was captured in Abbottabad in January 2011, not far from bin Laden's compound, it has not yet been established whether or not he had tried to contact the al-Qaeda leader.

Thursday's testimony provided possible insights into the shadowy world of militant extremists, who cross borders to wage religious warfare. The MILF fighters he met included Malaysians as well as Indonesians and Filipinos, Iqbal told the court.

He said he was taught to use many kinds of weapons after arriving at the MILF camp.

"While I was there, I was trained to use arm guns such as M16 rifles, long rifles and also mortars, to read a map and also about war strategy. MILF provided all the arm guns with a registration number. Therefore if we left the camp, we had to return it back to them," he said. "However, we were not trained to build any bomb at all."

Patek often gave briefings to Indonesian volunteers with the MLIF, especially on the topics of war strategy and the purpose of jihad. He believed jihad should only be carried out in areas of conflict, Iqbal said.

The trial proceedings will resume on Monday.

Muslim leader: terrorists must stop undermining Islam's image

Muslim leader: terrorists must stop undermining Islam's image

A witness at the trial of Umar Patek said extremists have taken the lives of innocent Muslims and are undermining Islam.

Attacks by radical extremists have cost the lives of Muslims and tarnished the image of Islam, a Muslim community leader from Kuta testified Thursday (April 24th) before the West Jakarta District Court during the trial of Umar Patek.

Speaking of his emotions following the 2002 bomb attack in Kuta that cost the lives of over two hundred people, he recalled the story of one victim, Mohammad Taufik.

"Taufik was such a genuinely nice, religious man and he had actually planned to perform umrah [pilgrimage] in 2003 with his wife. They had already paid the expenses. But unfortunately he was killed in the 2002 Bali bomb attack," Agus Bambang Priyatno, the community leader, told the court.

He said such acts of violence have undermined Islam's reputation as a religion of peace.

"The 2002 Bali Bomb attack has been destroying my religion's image across the globe. It has been creating a bad image that Islam is identical with terrorism and violence," he said.

"Therefore I'm demanding to all the radical Muslims to stop any violent action and terror attacks conducted in the name of Islam," Agus said.

"It will destroy Islam’s image as if Islam is a religion, which is identified with terrorism and violent actions."

"Besides that, this is also destroying Indonesia’s credibility as a moderate Muslim nation internationally."

Patek, alleged to have played a key role in the bombings, faces terrorism charges that could bring him the death penalty should he be convicted. He appeared to listen attentively to the testimony by Agus.

Patek then briefly responded, saying that he too regretted the incident's impact.

Also testifying was Ruqqayah, Patek's wife. She said she knew nothing about Patek's relations with the late al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and was in the dark about her husband's alleged role in the Bali bombing or the Christmas Eve bombings two years earlier, in which 18 died.

"My husband did not tell me anything about it," she said, describing herself as an obedient wife who always did what she was asked to do.

Even when the couple fled to Pakistan, using aliases to conceal their identities from authorities, she did not know why they were using false names and did not ask her husband to explain, Ruqqayah said.

"I just did what I was asked by my husband and I did not question anything about it," she said, describing Patek as a genuinely nice man who loved her.

"When we arrived in Pakistan, we were picked up by a man whom I just met for very first time, and we went to Lahore then continued the trip to Multan. And I did not know where we went next and we just lived there for couple months until we were arrested," she continued.

"In that city [Abbottabad], we were told to not leave the house at all by the person, whose name I did not know. So we just stayed inside to study the Qur'an and pray a lot," Ruqqayah testified. Following her testimony, Presiding Judge Encep Yuliadi allowed the couple to embrace each other.

The trial proceedings will resume on Thursday.

Witnesses: Loopholes in system helped Patek flee

Witnesses: Loopholes in system helped Patek flee

A former immigration officer who approved Umar Patek's passport said no red flags came up in his application.

Terror suspect Umar Patek was able to flee Indonesia in 2009 because he went unrecognised by immigration authorities, witnesses testified Monday (April 23rd) before the West Jakarta District Court, citing deficiencies in communication and the fact that he was using an alibi.

“Our travel-ban list system is only in the form of a name list and identification without any photograph," said former immigration officer Asni Redani Suandi, who interviewed Patek when he applied for travel papers in 2008.

"As long as they meet the entire requirements and they are not listed on the travel-ban name list, any Indonesian citizen could be granted a passport," she said.

Although a police most-wanted list was placed in her office, Suandi said, she did not recognize Patek – who was going by the name Anis Alawi.

His application was complete and he passed the interview. As a result, her office issued a passport, which he then used to leave the country.

Patek is charged with participating in a succession of terrorist attacks, including the 2002 bombing of two nightclubs in Bali. A total of 202 people died in that incident, for which he faces the death penalty if convicted.

Nine years later, he was captured in Pakistan. Indonesian authorities, whose counterterrorism efforts have largely reined in the Jemaah Islamiyah extremist group, have been struggling to pin down the sequence of events that allowed Patek to make it so far.

Monday's trial proceedings largely focused on vulnerabilities in the passport system, with judges saying procedures must be tightened and communication improved.

Asni told the court that, according to standard operating procedure, a passport applicant must submit a copy of his or her identity card, family card, and birth or marriage certificate. Once all the required material is provided, he or she will be called in for an interview and asked to bring the original documents for verification.

During the interview stage, applicants are asked several questions, she said. They may be asked to give their name, address and birthday, as well as to state their purpose in applying for a passport.

"If I was not mistaken, the defendant told me that he would use the passport for Umrah [pilgrimage to Mecca]," she told the court.

Muhammad Marsudi Rasyid, who heads the intelligence department at East Jakarta Immigration Office, told the court that the name Anis Alawi did not appear in the travel ban list in connection with terror activities. But the name Umar Patek did appear, he said.

"Our travel-ban list system only takes the form of a name list without photograph. If somebody has a different name, they can just pass through immigration and we cannot verify based on their pictures," Marsudi told the court."Even today, the travel-ban list system is only in the form of a name list without photograph."

According to the panel of judges hearing the case, Monday's testimony shows the need to improve co-ordination from ward level to immigration level.

In particular, they said, it is crucial to make sure that key documents cannot be falsified any more.

"What would the world say if this kind of thing keeps happening in Indonesia?" judges said as the hearing closed. Proceedings will resume on Thursday.

Witnesses detail impact of Bali bombings

Witnesses detail impact of Bali bombings

The attacks that killed 202 also dealt a massive blow to the region's economy, Balinese officials said Thursday.

Testifying Thursday (April 12th) in the trial of accused Bali bomber Umar Patek, Balinese officials spoke of the impact the 2002 attacks had on the island's tourism industry, while a forensic doctor recalled the horrific aftermath.

"At the very beginning, we could not identify the victims because many of them were damaged and could not be recognised anymore," said the doctor, Ida Bagus Putu of Denspasar's Sanglah Hospital.

"After three months of identification processes, we could identify 199 out of 202 people."

The bodies had burns as well as wounds showing that objects had penetrated them at high speed, he said.

"Other than that, we also received 325 body parts from the victims, but we could not identify 140 body parts because they had become rotten," he told the court.

Doctors were able to distinguish 78 women and 117 men among the victims, but others could not be identified by gender, the doctor testified.

The twin bombings on the night of October 12th, 2002 – one carried out by a suicide bomber wearing an explosives-laden vest, the other a massive car bomb detonated outside a crowded nightclub – are considered Indonesia's worst-ever terror attack. According to Balinese officials who spoke during Thursday's trial proceedings, they also increased poverty on the island by disrupting a vital sector in its economy.

"Compared to the hotel occupancy in October and November 2001 and 2002, the number dropped significantly [after the bombings]. The bomb attack was really an impoverishment process for Bali," testified I Gusti Ngurah Oka Darmawan, the former head of the tourism department in Badung.

Eighty percent of district revenues come from the hotel and tourism industries, which also have an economic impact on surrounding localities, he said.

"It took us two years for recovery," he added.

Ngurah Mas Wijaya Kusuma, an immigration officer from Ngurah Rai Airport, told the court that the bombings had significantly affected the number of tourists coming from abroad.

"According to our data, the number of foreign tourist dropped 70% compared to 2001. Before the attack, the number of foreign tourists stood at around 100,000 to 159,000 visiting Bali every month," he said.

As of September 2002, the number stood at 153,000. But the figure dropped to 81,063 in October and 31,477 the following month, Ngurah said.

Patek, the defendant in Thursday's proceedings, is the last Bali bombing suspect to go on trial and faces the death penalty if found guilty. His trial began in February and is expected to last four months.

The main actors in the bombings – Mukhlas, Amrozi and Imam Samudra – were convicted and executed in 2008.

Prosecutors on Thursday called to the stand two men convicted for their supporting roles in the attack, hoping to shed more light on how much Patek knew about the plot. He has acknowledged mixing the bombs but insists he was in the dark concerning the actual plans for their use.

One of the men, Sarjiyo, confirmed that he and Patek attended a military training camp in Pakistan, where they studied war strategy, bomb making, and mapping.

In September 2002, as Sarjiyo was busy mixing 700kg of explosive materials, he requested Patek's help, the witness said.

Patek's role in the bomb preparation was minimal and limited to the final stages, he explained.

"When Patek arrived, I was about to finish mixing the material and there were 50kg of explosive material left over. So I asked him to help me to finish it because I knew that Patek has similar knowledge," Sarjiyo said.

The trial proceedings will resume on Monday

Money for Bali bombing came from bin Laden, witnesses say

Money for Bali bombing came from bin Laden, witnesses say

Two former associates of alleged Bali bomb maker Umar Patek testified that funds from al-Qaeda paid for the Mitsubishi used in the lethal 2002 attack.

Osama bin Laden sent as much as $30,000 to the militants who carried out the 2002 Bali bombing, witnesses in the trial of terror suspect Umar Patek testified. The funds, they said, covered numerous expenses incurred by the bombers

"I actually did not know where the money came from but [convicted bomber] Mukhlas told me that it was received gradually from Osama," Mohammad Ikhsan, also known as Idris, told the West Jakarta District Court on Monday (March 26th).

The al-Qaeda funds, he added, went towards the purchase of a Mitsubishi L300, used as a car bomb outside a crowded nightclub in Bali's Kuta resort.

"Apart from that, the funding was also used to purchase the material for manufacturing bombs, two motorbikes, renting a house, and also the living costs for members of the Bali bomb terrorist network," Idris said.

His testimony echoes the one given by a fellow witness, Ali Imron, who is the younger brother of Mukhlas. Imron told the court Thursday that Mukhlas had received the money personally from the al-Qaeda leader.

"In 2001, while my brother was in Afghanistan, he met Osama bin Laden and carried back $30,000 in order to carry out amaliah jihad in Southeast Asia," said Imron, who received a life sentence in 2003 for his role in the plot. Mukhlas—also known as Ali Ghufron—and another brother of Imron’s, Amrozi, were executed in January 2003.

Much of the focus in the Patek trial has been on whether the defendant, who has admitted to mixing the bombs used in the Bali attack, was culpable for how they were used. Patek, a 42-year-old former operative with the Jemaah Islamiyah extremist network, has denied that he knew the details concerning the bomb plot.

He faces six charges, including premeditated murder, in connection with the Bali bombings and attacks carried out against six Jakarta churches on Christmas Eve in 2000, as well as identification fraud and illegal possession of firearms and explosives. Having fled the country in 2003, he was apprehended in January 2011 in Pakistan and sent back to Indonesia to face justice.

If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

Key witnesses have corroborated charges that he mixed the deadly chemical cocktails that were detonated in the attacks. On Monday, Idris said that on one occasion when he came to deliver food to the house where the bombers were staying, he saw Patek mixing the explosive materials.

"I actually only saw it for a second and was not sure what kind of material that was mixed by Patek because I did not see the substance that was mixed. However I did see that the explosive material, which was sent from Lamongan [in East Java], had been opened," Idris said.

On Thursday, Imron said Patek appeared to express hesitation after a mishap that occurred as the group moved a filing cabinet containing the lethal stew.

"Amrozi, who was joking around or actually annoyed, dragged the filing cabinet instead of lifting it up," he said. "It caused explosive materials, which were scattered on the floor, to rub against each other and cause an explosion inside the house."

After the incident, Imron said, Patek interrupted the others and said "perhaps it is a sign we must not bomb."

Patek lawyers: client didn't know what bombs were for

Patek lawyers: client didn't know what bombs were for

Defense contends that Umar Patek was not part of the Bali terror plot, although he admits to manufacturing the explosives used.

Closeted away in a rented flat, he allegedly spent weeks manufacturing a massive bomb that was used in the 2002 Bali attacks. But Umar Patek and his lawyers say no one can prove he actually knew what his handiwork was going to be used for.

"Patek was invited by Imam Samudra [to mix the explosives] and he only took part in constructing the bombs. But actually Patek was not involved in the planning or its implementation," attorney Asludin Hatjani told reporters outside the court.

Samudra, a university-educated computer expert described by police as the "field commander" of the Bali terrorists, was convicted in 2003 and executed by firing squad in November 2008 along with two accomplices, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron.

Although Patek manufactured bombs at their bidding, that doesn't prove he was involved in the plot, his defense lawyers argue. Therefore they say, he should not be charged with premeditated murder – one of six counts brought against him in his indictment.

"There is no legal argument that could prove the defendant deliberately participated in the plan to take lives," another lawyer, who goes only by the name Ainal, told the court.

Prosecutors in the case, however, say Patek was an integral part of the conspiracy, even if he neither transported the bombs to the attack site, nor helped set them off.

"If a group of people co-operate to plan and conduct a crime of killings, it doesn't matter who finishes the job. They are all involved," prosecutor Bambang Suharyadi said.

Over 200 people died when the 700kg bomb, hidden in a Mitsubishi van, exploded outside the popular Sari Club on Kuta Beach. Most victims were young foreigners, though the blast also killed locals who worked in the area or were just passing by.

Patek's defense team has also argued that terrorism laws adopted by Indonesia in 2003 can't be applied to earlier cases, including the Bali bombing. His lawyers contest the claim that Patek participated in a jihadist training camp in the province of Aceh.

"He was at the site, but was only there to attend a wedding," Hasludin said.

The 45-year-old Patek could be sentenced to death if convicted, and prosecutors have said they will push for the maximum penalty. He is a "dangerous figure wanted not only in Indonesia but also in other countries such as the Philippines. He has caused the deaths of many," Bambang said.

Some analysts argue, however, that executing Patek would hinder rather than help the effort to root out violent extremism.

"It is not that I defend Patek, but it needs to be understood that he is a goldmine of information where we can always get more information about terrorist networks, particularly in South East Asia," said Noor Huda Ismail, a Jakarta-based analyst at the Institute of International Peace Building.

According to Huda, Patek could play a role in neutralising the emergence of new radical networks, in part because of his knowledge concerning recent developments such as the Aceh camp and its leader Dulmatin, killed by police in March 2010.

There would be precedents for handing down a lighter sentence if Patek renounces extremism. In 2003, judges spared the life of convicted Bali bomber Ali Imron, who had expressed repentance over his actions and described them as misguided.

"Our capabilities as Indonesians are something to be proud of, but they were used for a wrong purpose," said Imron, who testified he received training in Afghanistan on how to make bombs.

"In my heart, I regret this. I want to apologise to the victims' families in Indonesia and to foreign families."

Patek, however, has yet to signal remorse over the carnage in Bali. In October 2011, he appeared emotionless as he accompanied police on a re-enactment of the devastating attack.

He is the top remaining suspect in the Bali night clubs bombing, which focused worldwide attention on the al-Qaeda-linked group Jemaah Islamiyah and its goal of creating a pan-Islamic theocracy across Southeast Asia.