Pakistan sends Bali bombing suspect to Indonesia for trial

Aug 11, 2011, 9:10 GMT

Jakarta - An Indonesian man accused of assembling explosives used in the 2002 bombings in Bali was extradited to his home country on Thursday after being detained in Pakistan for six months, police said.

Umar Patek was arrested by Pakistani authorities in January in Abbottabad, the same town where Osama bin Laden was killed by the US military in May.

Patek, who had a 1-million-dollar bounty on his head, was immediately sent to a police detention centre just south of Jakarta, national police spokesman Anton Bachrul Alam said.

'We will process his case immediately,' he said.

Islamic militants bombed two nightclubs in Bali in October 2002, killing 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.

Three key players in the bombings - Imam Samudra, Mukhlas bin Nur Hasyim and his brother Amrozi - were sentenced to death and subsequently executed in 2008.

Ansyaad Mbai, the head of the National Counter-Terrorism Agency, said Patek had admitted to involvement in the Bali bombings and coordinated attacks targeting Indonesian churches on Christmas eve in 2000, Vivanews.com reported.

The state Antara news agency quoted Mbai as saying there were currently dozens of militants with skills similar to Patek's in Indonesia.

'Anyone can learn how to make bombs,' he said.

Indonesia has been hit by a string of bomb attacks blamed on Islamic militants since 2000.

In the latest major attack, militants bombed Jakarta's Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in July 2009, killing nine people and wounding more than 50.

Police said they had foiled at least two major terror plots this year.

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