Author:
Publication: The Sunday Mail
Date: July 16, 2003
URL: http://www.thesundaymail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,6761883^401,00.html
A key suspect in last year's Bali
bombings claimed at trial today the attack was justified under Islam because
it avenged the killings of innocent Muslims by the United States and its
allies.
Imam Samudra also said he did not
regret the October 12 nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, mostly
foreign tourists. Officials say Samudra is a senior member of Jemaah Islamiyah,
an al-Qaida-linked terror network believed responsible for the blasts.
Samudra, an Afghan-trained militant,
is accused of planning and carrying out the almost simultaneous twin blasts.
He, like several other of the 35 people arrested over the attack, has admitted
his involvement. His lawyers expect a conviction but are seeking to avoid
a death sentence.
Samudra said he felt sorry for the
Muslims who were killed in the blasts and claimed God would forgive him
for their deaths.
"But if my actions touched the unbelievers
... then that is justified in the Quran and the sayings of the Prophet
Muhammad," he said.
He said the killings of innocent
Muslims in Iraq, Palestine and elsewhere at the hands of the United States
and its allies meant that Muslims had a right to kill Westerners at will.
However, Samudra denied specifically
targeting the resort island but admitted he felt disgusted by the behaviour
of foreign tourists there.
"I never mentioned Bali. Why Bali?
I don't know," Samudra told the trial before describing his "disgust" at
white people drinking liquor and frolicking while he was strolling past
Bali's nightclub strips.
"I saw bules [white people] doing
vicious things, drinking and adulterous things there," he said. "I felt
extremely disgusted."
Samudra also said he saw al-Qaeda
terror chief Osama bin Laden during three years spent in Afghanistan learning
warfare skills and bomb-making but did not speak to him.
Samudra, who could face a firing
squad if convicted of the bombings which killed 202 people, said he had
wanted to die as a martyr since he was in junior high school.
He said he was sorry for the death
of fellow Muslims in the blasts, which he described as a "side effect".
Prosecutors say Samudra, a 33-year-old
computer specialist, attended key planning meetings in the run-up to the
attack and coordinated his conspirators' actions on the night of the blast.
He is accused of violating recently
passed anti-terror laws. If found guilty, he faces the death penalty.
With Agence France-Presse