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Australians ‘horrified’ as Bali bomb maker freed from jail, but Indonesia claims move justified
- Australian officials say release will be ‘difficult’ for those who lost loved ones in 2002 attacks, while one survivor calls the move ‘laughable’
- Indonesia maintains Umar’s release followed country’s judicial system, procedures and his movements will be monitored
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The release of convicted bomb maker Umar Patek was a “difficult day” for Australians who lost loved ones in the 2002 Bali attacks, deputy prime minister Richard Marles said on Thursday, even as Indonesia justified the move as one which adhered to the country’s judicial system and procedures.
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Umar, 55, was released from prison in the city of Surabaya in East Java at 8am on Wednesday after he had served two-thirds of his current sentence.
Umar, whose real name is Hisyam bin Alizein, was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison by the West Jakarta District Court in 2012, a decade after the Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
His sentence was cut back by 33 months, with such reductions typically granted to prisoners during major holidays, including Indonesia’s independence day on August 17.
Umar’s early release was “a very difficult day for many Australians – all Australians”, Marles said. “I’m particularly thinking right now of the families of those who were killed and injured in the Bali bombings.”
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