Bali nightclub bombing suspect extradited to Indonesia News
Bali nightclub bombing suspect extradited to Indonesia
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[JURIST] Pakistan extradited Umar Patek, the confessed bomb maker in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing [BBC backgrounder], to Indonesia on Thursday. Patek will be charged [Jakarta Post report] under the Indonesian criminal code rather than its terrorism laws. Reportedly, he will be charged with premeditated murder under the Emergency Law on Explosives. It is also alleged that Patek is in poor psychological health [Jakarta Globe report]. Patek was the last suspect at-large from the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing, and was captured in Abbottabad, Pakistan earlier this year. It is suspected he associated with Osama Bin Laden [JURIST news archive] while in Pakistan. It was not revealed whether Patek is a member of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) [CFR backgrounder; JURIST news archive], the terrorist organization that conducted the bombing.

JI claimed responsibility in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings, which killed 202 people and injured 240 others. They were also implicated in the 2004 bombing of the US embassy in Jakarta and a series of further bombings in Bali during 2005. Last year, the Obama administration was considering bringing charges in a Washington, DC, federal court against Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee Riduan Isamuddin [BBC profile], the suspected planner [JURIST report] of the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing. Isamuddin, also known as Hambali, is the former military commander of JI and was allegedly the main link between JI and al Qaeda [GlobalSecurity backgrounder] before his capture in 2003. A decision on how to try him has not been announced, although Indonesian police requested access to Hambali in 2009 [JURIST report]. In 2008, three JI members were executed [JURIST report] following convictions for their involvement in those bombings. Before their executions, the three men had called on Islamic militant groups to carry out retribution attacks, which resulted in stepped-up security in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta and a warning [text] issued by the US embassy in Indonesia.