- Title: File of Bali bombings ahead of its 20th anniversary
- Date: 5th October 2022
- Summary: DESTROYED BUILDING / PEOPLE STANDING NEAR CHARRED HUMAN LEG
- Embargoed: 19th October 2022 01:41
- Keywords: Bali Indonesia Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) anniversary attack blasts bombings death militants security
- Location: KUTA, DENPASAR, NUSA KAMBANGAN ISLAND, BALI, JAKARTA, SIDOARJO, EAST JAVA PROVINCE, INDONESIA
- City: KUTA, DENPASAR, NUSA KAMBANGAN ISLAND, BALI, JAKARTA, SIDOARJO, EAST JAVA PROVINCE, INDONESIA
- Country: Indonesia
- Topics: Asia / Pacific,Bombing (non-military),Conflicts/War/Peace
- Reuters ID: LVA002458912092022RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES
PART QUALITY AS INCOMING
Wednesday (October 12) marks the 20th anniversary of the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings which killed hundreds of people on the Indonesian tourist island.
The two, almost simultaneous blasts on Bali's Kuta strip late at night on Oct. 12, 2002 - one at Paddy's Bar, the other at the Sari Club - killed 202 including 88 Australians and 38 Indonesian citizens, and devastated the resort island's tourist industry.
The attacks, blamed on Southeast Asian Islamic militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI), were intended to scare away foreigners so that Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, could eventually become part of a larger Islamic caliphate.
Instead, the series of bomb attacks in Bali and Jakarta pushed Indonesia into a closer security and intelligence relationship with the United States and Australia as the government sought help in tackling Islamic militants.
Security forces detained nearly 600 militants, most of whom were jailed, since the attack.
Three men -- Imam Samudra, brothers Amrozi and Mukhlas, also known as Ali Gufron -- were arrested in late 2002 and sentenced to death the following year after a high-profile trial in the resort island of Bali. The three Indonesians, identified by authorities as members of Southeast Asian Muslim militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) responsible for the bombings, were executed by a firing squad in 2008 at a prison on Nusa Kambangan island in central Java.
Islamic militant Umar Patek was sentenced to 20 years jail by an Indonesian court in June 2012 after he was found guilty of mixing bombs that ripped through the two Bali nightclubs in 2002.
However, more than 10 years later in 2022, news broke that Patek was granted a five-month reduction as part of a series of remissions given to inmates on Indonesia's independence day on Aug 17. The bomber has received several similar reductions since his conviction.
News of Patek's impending release sparks outrage in Australia, with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese saying his release would have a "devastating impact on the families of victims".
The exact date of Patek's release, the final signoff for which rests with Indonesia's justice minister, remains unclear.
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