Pakistan to get rid of Bali bombing
suspect By Amir Mir
ISLAMABAD - Notwithstanding serious
apprehensions expressed by Indonesian authorities
that their local courts will not be able to
prosecute Umar Patek, the prime suspect in the
2002 Bali nightclub bombing, if tried at home, the
Pakistan government has finally decided to
extradite to Indonesia the Jemaah Islamiya
commander. He was arrested from Abbottabad where
he was supposed to meet al-Qaeda chief Osama bin
Laden, later killed in an American military raid
on May 1, 2011.
Patek, who reportedly
trained with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan before the
9/11 terror attacks on the United States, was able
to remain plugged into transnational terror
networks for almost a decade despite being one of
the world's most wanted terrorists for his role in
the Bali bombing that killed more than 200 people, mostly
tourists from Australia and
the United Kingdom.
Patek was captured by
Pakistani security agencies in Abbottabad on
January 25, belying earlier reports that he had
been killed in a military operation in Sulu
province of the Philippines on September 14, 2006.
Carrying US$1 million head money, Patek
was arrested along with his Filipino wife from the
Abbottabad district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
following a bloody gun battle with Pakistani
law-enforcement agencies.
However, the
Pakistani authorities only made public his arrest
two months later, on March 30. Patek is a key
leader of the Jemaah Islamiya (JI or Islamic Group
in Arabic), which has deep links with al-Qaeda and
wants to establish an Islamic state in the region,
encompassing Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Singapore, the southern Philippines and southern
Thailand.
Patek's seizure became possible
in the wake of a tip off by US intelligence
sleuths who had been monitoring some of his close
aides in Pakistan following intelligence reports
that he and some other al-Qaeda-linked terrorists
operating from the Pak-Afghan tribal belt were
planning to carry out yet another major terrorist
attack in the US to commemorate 10 years since
9/11.
Born in 1970, Patek, a well-trained
explosives expert with high-ranking contacts in
al-Qaeda, fled Indonesia and joined up with
fighters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in
the Philippines, where he led a JI training camp
in Mindanao.
Patek returned to Indonesia
sometime in 2010 to establish al-Qaeda's training
camp in the Aceh area of Indonesia, located on the
northern tip of Sumatra Island. As per Indonesian
intelligence input, Patek entered Pakistan via
Bangkok in Thailand to meet the fugitive al-Qaeda
chief to discuss funding, recruiting and future
terrorist operations. Commanders from al-Qaeda in
the Arabian Peninsula, al-Qaeda in Iraq, al-Qaeda
in the Islamic Maghreb and JI are sighted in
Pakistan from time to time.
There are
those in the intelligence community who believe
that the 40-year-old Indonesian terrorist, who was
treated at an army hospital for bullet wounds to
his legs following his arrest, might have spilled
the beans on Bin Laden's whereabouts during
interrogations.
According to Indonesian
authorities, he traveled to Abbottabad in August
2010 and was aiming to meet Bin Laden to get his
support and protection.
Indonesian Defense
Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro claimed, on May 5,
hardly two days after Bin Laden was killed, that
Patek had been in Abbottabad to meet Bin Laden
because he was also a deputy commander of
al-Qaeda's Southeast Asian affiliate, JI. "The
information we have is that Umar Patek was in
Pakistan with his Filipino wife and trying to meet
Osama bin Laden," the defense minister stated.
According to well-informed circles in the
Pakistani security establishment, the run of good
luck for Patek actually ended on January 23, with
the arrest of two Frenchmen from Lahore. Both
white jihadis were detained from the Defense
Housing Authority area while meeting with an
al-Qaeda-linked Pakistani national, Tahir Shehzad.
The Frenchmen were part of the JI and were
scheduled to travel with Patek from Abbottabad to
the North Waziristan tribal region where
al-Qaeda's top command is based.
One
detained French citizen was of Pakistani origin
while the other was a convert to Islam. Tahir
Shehzad had been under surveillance since last
year when he was spotted in Abbottabad with an
Arab terror suspect. As he left Abbottabad for
Lahore on January 23, Pakistani security sleuths
followed him and eventually arrested him along
with the two French militants, whom he had picked
up from Allama Iqbal International Airport. Their
subsequent interrogations led to the arrest of
Patek from Abbottabad.
Come in
Indonesia The Pakistan government had given
Indonesia the first choice over three other
countries - the United States, Australia and the
Philippines - to get Patek's custody, primarily
because of his Indonesian citizenship.
This was despite the fact that Pakistan
does not share an extradition treaty with
Indonesia and the American Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) had sought his custody for
having killed seven American nationals in the Bali
bombing and also because of his links to al-Qaeda,
which is blamed for the 9/11 attacks.
Similarly, Australia wants him in custody
for having killed 88 Australian nationals in the
Bali suicide attack. And last but not the least,
the Philippines wants Patek for planning several
terrorist attacks in the country with the help of
the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a separatist
terror group that is active in southern
Philippines.
However, to the surprise of
the Pakistan government, the Indonesian
authorities maintained that they were not very
keen to get Patek's custody and that they would
have no objection if Islamabad handed him over to
any other country where he is wanted for
prosecution.
The Indonesian authorities
were of the view that his extradition to Jakarta
to face terrorism charges would create problems
for them as the anti-terrorism law in Indonesia
was only enacted in August 2003, and it can't be
applied retroactively to punish Patek for the Bali
bombing, carried out in October 2002.
Therefore, the National Anti-Terror Agency
of Indonesia recently requested Pakistan hand over
Patek to the United States, as was the case with
his co-conspirator in the Bali bombing, Riduan
Isamuddin alias Hambali, who was arrested in
Thailand in 2003 but later flown to the US.
Hambali is lingering in the US-run
terrorist detention offshore facility in
Guantanamo Bay, along with hundreds of other
terrorist suspects linked to al-Qaeda. Jakarta did
make a formal representation on Hambali's behalf,
but never seriously, knowing well that bringing
him back to Indonesia would only lead to legal
complications that could also lead to him walking
free.
However, Pakistan, whose military
and diplomatic ties with the US have touched their
lowest ebb in the aftermath of the May 2
Abbottabad operation to hunt down Bin Laden, has
turned down the Indonesian request, apparently in
a fit of anger and decided to hand him over to
Jakarta for prosecution.
"Pakistan
delivered a message in early July that they will
send Umar Patek to Indonesia," the National
Anti-Terror Agency deputy chief, Tito Karnavian,
is reported to have told journalists on July 25.
"Indonesia's Foreign and Justice ministries are
now working to process Patek's deportation," he
said, adding that Patek's transfer may increase
the threat of terrorism in the region. He further
warned that it may be difficult to convict him for
his role in the Bali attacks as it occurred before
more stringent laws on terrorism were enacted.
In an interview with the Sydney Morning
Herald in the first week of July, the head of
Indonesia's anti-terrorism agency, Ansyaad Mbai,
stated that Patek would become a new figurehead
for violent jihadis if returned to the country of
his birth.
"Umar Patek was chased by many
countries. There was a [million dollar] prize on
his head, but now that he's arrested it is as if
Indonesia must face the problem alone," Ansyaad
told the newspaper.
"This man is very
dangerous. His presence here would increase the
terror threat, not only to Indonesia but to
several countries with a presence here," Ansyaad.
He also agreed that Indonesia would face
difficulties bringing him to justice as the
bombings occurred before Indonesia enacted its
counter-terrorism laws.
Terrorism experts
say the Indonesian authorities' reluctance to get
Patek's custody is telling. Since the 2002
attacks, they remind, Indonesia has made
counter-terrorism a national priority, arresting
hundreds of militants and weakening
al-Qaeda-linked networks.
But the threat
of militarism persists.
In March, a series
of book bombs was sent to four liberal Indonesians
- a politician, a counter-terror expert, the chair
of a youth organization and a singer. In April, a
suicide bomber attacked a security forces' mosque,
killing himself and injuring 30 others. In June,
Jakarta was put on lock-down for the trial of
extremist Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who,
despite being sentenced in connection with the
Bali bombings, was greeted like a religious rock
star outside the court.
Therefore, the
Indonesian authorities rightly worry that Patek's
case, like that of Bashir, could become a rallying
cry for would-be jihadis. The million-dollar
question remains: will the Indonesian authorities
be able to penalize Patek once he is extradited to
Jakarta?
Amir Mir is a senior
Pakistani journalist and the author of several
books on the subject of militant Islam and
terrorism, the latest being The Bhutto murder
trail: From Waziristan to GHQ.
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