Umar Patek never met Bin Laden: Lawyer

Tells Jakarta court he in fact had no idea Osama was in Abbottabad.

JAKARTA: An Indonesian man accused of bomb making was alleged to have met with Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad the town where US soldiers killed the al Qaeda leader, but Umar Patek’s lawyer denied that the two ever met.

Patek, 45, faces six counts of murder, bomb-making and illegal firearms possession over the 2002 Bali nightclub attacks, and prosecutors say they will push for the death penalty. In his trial at the West Jakarta court on Monday, defence lawyers objected to the murder charges, saying Patek was not involved in planning the bombing that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

As the most wanted terror suspect in Indonesia, Patek had a $1 million bounty on his head under the US rewards for justice programme. He was extradited to Indonesia after being arrested in January 2011 in Abbottabad

During the trial his lawyer Asludin Hatjani also vehemently denied the accusation that Patek had gone to Pakistan to meet with the al Qaeda boss.

“He went to Pakistan as part of his plans to migrate to Afghanistan. He never met Osama bin Laden in Pakistan and he had no plans to meet him. In fact, he had no idea Osama was in Abbottabad,” Hatjani told the court.

The trail also surfaced charges that Patek was a suspected key member of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a Southeast Asian network with alleged links to al Qaeda.

Hatjani added that Patek had a limited role in the Bali attacks compared to what the prosecution was trying to portray.

Patek’s trial is expected to last at least four months until a verdict is reached.  

Published in The Express Tribune, February 21^st, 2012.