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espite six counts of repugnant violations, the West Jakarta District Court handed down on Thursday a 20-year prison for Hisyam bin Ali Zein, better known as Umar Patek.

The verdict is lighter than the life sentence sought by prosecutors for Patek’s main role in assembling explosives for the 2002 Bali bombing that killed more than 200 people.

The panel of judges, presided over by Encep Yuliardi, found Patek, 46, guilty of illegal possession of firearms and explosive devices and chemicals, premeditated murder in the Bali bombing and Jakarta’s Christmas Eve church bombing in 2000 that killed 19.

He was also found guilty of hiding information about terrorism, document forgery, and helping establish a terrorist training camp in Aceh in 2010.

Patek ducked the life sentence as the court could not find any evidence of his role as one of the masterminds in the Bali bombing.

His lawyer, Asludin Hanjuni, said he would appeal the verdict.

“We will consult with Patek’s family, and plan to file the appeal either on Monday or Tuesday,”
he said.

During the trial, Patek admitted he helped make the bombs, but said he did not know how they would
be used.

The “Demolition Man” is the last living senior perpetrator of the Bali bombing, after police killed terrorist masterminds Azhari in 2005, Dulmatin in 2009 and Noordin M. Top in 2010.

Meanwhile, Imam Samudra and two other organizers of the Bali attack — brothers Amrozi Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron — were convicted and executed in 2008.

Their group was part of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist organization, led by firebrand cleric Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, who is currently serving out a 15-year prison sentence for aiding a terrorist
training camp.

Patek’s nine-year flight from justice was brought to an end when he was caught by authorities in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in January 2011 — just weeks before Osama bin Laden was shot dead by the US military in the same town.

The authorities had to shoot Patek, then Southeast Asia’s most-wanted terrorist, to capture him before extraditing him to Indonesia several months later.

Patek’s three-month trial was marked with melodramatic moments, including when the defendant’s tearful apology to the bombing victims, as well as to Christians all over the archipelago.

He had claimed from the start of the trial that he had always objected to all of JI’s attacks. However, he said that he could not disobey Imam Samudra, and was forced to proceed with the plan.

Patek said that the JI had carried out the Christmas Eve bombing in retaliation for violence perpetrated by Christians during communal conflicts in Poso, Central Sulawesi, and the Bali bombings to avenge the misery of Muslims in Palestine.

The 2002 Bali bombing made Indonesia a key battlefield in terrorists’ struggle against Western facilities and interests, amid slack regulation on radicalism and wide support for radicals.

Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, has hunted down more than 700 terrorists after the Bali bombing and a string of blasts that rocked Jakarta, Bali and other targets throughout the archipelago. (tas)