Bali bombmaker Umar Patek records on-camera interview from Indonesian jail

Convicted Bali bombmaker Umar Patek, who faces imminent parole, has recorded an extraordinary on-camera interview from jail about his involvement in the 2002 nightclub bombings.

Patek was filmed in recent days walking through the jail grounds at Porong in East Java, chatting with the prison governor, both men smiling and laughing together on camera as he casually discusses his role in the terror attacks, which killed more than 200 people.

“My mistake was to be involved with the Bali bombing,” he tells governor Jalu Yuswa Panjang in the video.

“I told them I was against it. But they were 95 per cent done with the project.

“Nine-hundred-and-fifty kilograms of explosives were packed and ready, and they insisted on going ahead with it.”

The interview appears on the Porong Prison’s own YouTube channel, where the jail governor and other authorities regularly post similar interviews with other inmates, including convicted terrorists.

The post comes days after Patek was approved for parole, despite strong objections from the Australian government and outrage from Bali bomb survivors and victims’ families in Australia.

“This morning I joined our brother Umar Patek, our friend in Block F,” the governor says as he introduces the 20-minute video.

“Today we are going to talk to him about, who exactly is Umar Patek? Many do not know. Maybe there are a lot of ladies out there who want to know?”

Patek was a senior member of Jemaah Islamiah, the Al Qaeda-linked terror group behind the Bali bombings.

He spent years working with terrorist groups in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and only returned to Indonesia some time before the Bali attacks to introduce his Filipina wife to his family in Java.

“I didn’t come to Indonesia to join the Bali bomb project” he tells the prison governor in the video.

“Even when I found out about it I was so against it, I disagreed with it.

“I asked the others at the time, what were the reasons for the attack plan. There were no reasons.”

But Jan Laczynski, a Melbourne man who lost five friends in the Bali bombings, was dubious about Patek’s claims.

“He’s saying all of this in a high-security jail. It’s a lot different when you’re going out and about mixing with all the people that originally led him down this path,” he said.

Now 52, Patek has served only 10 years of an original 20-year sentence, but has had his jail term shortened by multiple remissions for good behaviour.

His release from jail now hinges on the government in Jakarta signing off on the final paperwork.

He claimed he had been deradicalised since he was jailed for his role in building the bombs that ripped through the Sari Club and Paddy’s Bar in October 2002, killing 202 people, including 88 Australians.

In the prison interview, he tells Governor Panjang, he wants to work with young convicted terrorists once he is released to help stamp out radicalism in Indonesia.

“I’d like to work with millennials because they’re the ones more prone to get infected by the radicalism virus,” he says.

“I’d like to help the government to educate people about the issue, for millennials and maybe terror inmates in prisons. I am open to help the directorate general of correctional facilities or other institutions.”

If and when Patek is paroled, he said he planned to work with other reformed terrorists at Tenggulun, a village west of Surabaya where several other Bali bombers came from.

Once a base for radicalism, Tenggulun is now host to a national program aimed at putting a stop to Islamist extremism.

It’s the village where the two executed bombers – Amrozi and Mukhlas – grew up. A third brother, Ali Imron, is serving a life sentence.

The national program, called Peace Circle was founded by their younger brother Ali Fauzi – another former terrorist and Jemaah Islamiah member who now works to deradicalise others.

It is Ali Fauzi who claims to have deradicalised Patek after visiting him in jail over many years.

“Umar Patek agreed to leave his old world behind and turn over a new leaf,” he told the ABC.

“His release would be beneficial for society.

“I guarantee 100 per cent that Umar won’t commit further terror actions and he’ll continue to be involved in deradicalisation programs.”

Indonesian authorities too believe Patek is no longer a threat to society, and can do more good outside jail than inside.

But many others insist Patek could still pose a terror risk.

Muhamad Syauqillah, a terrorism expert in Jakarta, said about 10 per cent of terrorists who are or claim to be deradicalised can fall back into extremism once released.

He said authorities needed to continue monitoring them after they re-enter the community.

“Whether former prisoners re-engage with terrorism is very much dependent on how authorities manage the deradicalisation programs after their release,” he said.

“That process must continue and not stop when he’s freed.”

Mr Laczynski said he was sceptical about granting parole to a convicted terrorist who committed the crimes that Patek has committed.

“You’re taking someone and a great leap of faith. Someone says that they’re all perfectly reformed, but they always say the same thing. They always say it in a high-security jail,” he said.

Government and corrections authorities could announce any day when they plan to release Patek.

The Porong Prison governor Jalu Yuswa Panjang has supported Patek’s parole.

“I hope what Umar has said, others can take as a good example,” he said in the recorded interview.

“Prison is a miniature of how people live in society — in prison life can be conducive, people can live peacefully and comfortably. Why can’t people outside live like that?”

Source: abc