Pakistan to fly Bali bomb suspect to Jakarta

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is preparing to fly to Indonesia an alleged mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombings months after his arrest in the town in which Osama bin Laden was killed, officials said Wednesday.

"We have to eventually hand over (Umar) Patek to the Indonesians and practically speaking, it can happen any time. But it is up to the Indonesians to intimate to us when they will take him back," a senior security official told AFP.

The most wanted extremist in Southeast Asia was arrested in March in the Abbottabad where US Navy SEALs killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden just weeks later.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said last week that the alleged coordinator of the 2002 Bali bombings, in which more than 200 people were killed, would be extradited to Indonesia "soon rather than later".

Born in 1970, Patek is a suspected member of the al Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).

In addition to the Bali bombings, he is also suspected of involvement in a series of deadly attacks targeting Christians and Westerners in Indonesia dating back to 1999.