Bali bomb maker Umar Patek eligible for parole; Indonesia wise to listen to Australia’s objections, analysts say
- Umar Patek was one of the terrorists convicted for 2002 attack that killed 202 people; he was sentenced to 20 years in 2012 after years on the run
- He is eligible for parole due to sentence reductions and his help in deradicalisation programme; experts say objections to release ‘relevant’
Indonesia is “wise” to consider Australia’s objection to the planned early release for a bomb maker involved in the deadly 2002 Bali attack, despite it being within its legal authority to let him out, say analysts.
Patek fled the resort island just before the suicide bomb and car bomb blasts and spent nine years on the run, making him one of Asia’s most wanted terror suspects.
Caught in Pakistan in 2011 then extradited to Indonesia, he was a leading member of Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian Islamic radical group linked to al-Qaeda, and was also sentenced for his involvement in fatal attacks on Jakarta churches on Christmas Eve 2000.
In Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, prisoners often have their sentences reduced on major holidays.
Patek, whose real name is Hisyam bin Alizein, has been granted a total sentence reduction of 33 months, including the five months knocked off this month to mark the nation’s Independence Day, celebrated each year on August 17.
