SINGAPORE: An Indonesia man accused of bombmaking was alleged to have met with Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani town where US soldiers killed the al-Qaeda leader, but Umar Patek's lawyer says the two never met. Patek, 45, faces six counts of murder, bombmaking and illegal firearms possession over the 2002 Bali nightclub attacks. Prosecutors said that they will push for the death penalty. In his trial at the West Jakarta court on Monday, defense lawyers have objected to the murder charges, saying Patek was not involved in planning the attack, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. Patek, once the most wanted person in Indonesia, had a $1 million bounty on his head under the US rewards for justice program. He was extradited to Indonesia after being arrested in January 2011 in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad, where US commandos later killed Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. His defense lawyer Asludin Hatjani has denied 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. He denied Patek was linked to al-Qaeda. “Even the police statements make no mention of his links to Al-Qaeda,” he said. Patek was a suspected key member of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a Southeast Asian network with suspected links to Al-Qaeda. Hatjani added that Patek's role in the Bali bombings was smaller than the prosecution was trying to portray. “His role in the Bali bombing was that he… participated in assembling the bombs,” he told reporters after Monday's session. “The premeditated murder charge is not appropriate.” BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/Le8NY Tags: Bali, Indonesia, Jakarta, Umar Patek Section: East Asia, Latest News
