Umar Patek is said to be the only major suspect for the Bali bombings
One
of the alleged masterminds of the 2002 Bali bombings has arrived in
Indonesia after being extradited from Pakistan, officials in Jakarta
say.
They say Umar Patek was taken to a detention centre and was expected to be charged later.
Anti-terrorism officials believe Mr Patek co-ordinated the
bomb attacks on the Indonesian tourist hub, killing 202 people, many of
them foreigners.
He is said to be the only major suspect who has not been killed or arrested.
'Significant coup'
Mr Patek has been linked with the militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI), which was blamed for the attacks.
He is believed to have worked closely with the attack's organiser Dulmatin, who was killed by Indonesian police last year.
Mr Patek was also reportedly
involved in at least three other attacks in Indonesia - and to have
links with militant groups in the southern Philippines and al-Qaeda
members in other parts of Asia.
The BBC's Karishma Vaswani in Jakarta says the extradition is
being seen as a significant coup for the anti-terror agencies in the
country.
Security experts believe that he will be able to reveal links
between terror cells in Pakistan, Indonesia and the Philippines, our
correspondent says.
However, she adds that there have been concerns over whether
he could be tried under Indonesia's anti-terror laws passed in 2003, as
they cannot be applied retrospectively.
He was arrested earlier this year in the Pakistani town of
Abbottabad, where al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden was later killed by US
commandoes.
There are no details about where or how the arrest was made, nor what Mr Patek was doing in Pakistan.
JI, which has been linked to al-Qaeda, has a long track record of bomb attacks in Indonesia.
The group's goal is the establishment of an Islamic state in Indonesia and in other parts of South East Asia.
0 comments