Chilling Smile of Al Qaeda Mastermind behind Bali

KOMPAS.com - With a sinister grin and his arm around his wife, this is the chilling face of the alleged mastermind behind the Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people nine years ago.

Umar Patek, 41, took part in a police reconstruction at the scene of the 2002 bombings on the resort island of Bali along with his wife Ruqayyah binti Husein Luceno.

A suspected member of the Al Qaeda-linked terror network Jemaah Islamiyah, Patek is set to be charged with premeditated murder in relation to the 202 victims, mostly Western tourists, killed at the Sari Club in the Kuta tourist district.

He was only captured in January by commandos in Pakistan after travelling there to plan a major terrorist attack with Osama Bin Laden at his secret compound in Abbottabad.

Four months later, the Al Qaeda leader was killed after U.S. Navy Seals stormed the compound in a secret operation. Patek assembled the explosives used in the Bali attack and has also confessed to carrying out a series of church bombings in Indonesia on Christmas Eve 2000, police said.

In an interview with a local newspaper last week, Patek reportedly said he had recommended that jihad be waged in Pakistan instead of Bali. He told the paper: 'I was just making a recommendation because at that point the preparations for the Bali bombing were almost done and there was no way it would have been called off.'

The explosives were built at a boarding house on Bali, before they were loaded on to the back of a vehicle and driven to the club. A separate device was carried in the backpack of a suicide bomber and a smaller device went off outside the U.S. consulate.

Some 26 Britons and 88 Australians were among the 202 people killed in the attacks in October 2002. After the attacks, Patek went on the run as one of Asia's most wanted terror suspects and had a $1million bounty on his head under the U.S. rewards for justice programme.

Three members of the violent Jemaah Islamiyah group were sentenced to death and executed for their involvement in the bombings. Luceno has also gone on trial over charges of immigration violations.

The 31-year-old Philippine national could face up to seven years in prison if found guilty. A state prosecutor told the East Jakarta District Court on Monday that Luceno had used a false identity card to get an Indonesian passport so she could accompany her husband as they travelled abroad.