Lives and crimes of the Bali bombers

Source TheAge

The lives and crimes of three Bali bombers, sentenced to die for their roles in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings.

Mukhlas, alias Ali Ghufron, alias Sofwan, 48

Mukhlas, from Lamongan district in East Java, is the eldest of the three Islamic militants sentenced to die over the attacks.

He was convicted of approving, inciting, financing and carrying out the bombings, which killed 202 people including 88 Australians, and was sentenced to die in late 2003.

His younger brother Amrozi is also facing death for aiding the attacks.

During his trial, Mukhlas said he knew al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden "well" and named his sixth son in his honour.

He had a long relationship with Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged spiritual head of the al-Qaeda linked terrorist network Jemaah Islamiah.

At the age of 22, Mukhlas joined Bashir's extremist Islamic boarding school in Central Java, working there as a teacher, and followed Bashir to Malaysia four years later.

A fluent Arabic speaker, Mukhlas trained in bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan in the late 1980s.

In 2001, his service to Jemaah Islamiah was rewarded when he was made the group's operations chief.

In February 2002, he attended a meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, where plotters decided to target Indonesian tourist spots.

Samudra, also sentenced to die over the nightclub bombings, had proposed targeting Bali because it had large numbers of "white people" and Mukhlas approved the plan.

Mukhlas received $US30,500 from a Malaysian financier to help fund the bomb plot and distributed the funds among the group.

- Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, 46

Amrozi, Mukhlas' younger brother, was the fifth of 13 siblings and before he turned to terrorism worked as a mechanic in the Lamongan district.

He was convicted of buying the van and a tonne of chemicals used to carry out the Bali bombings, and of attending planning sessions for the attacks.

But he made a grave error when he used his own name to buy the van, leading to his arrest and death sentence.

Amrozi was dubbed the smiling assassin after he expressed glee during his trial for the carnage he had helped cause in Bali.

"I'm happy, why should I regret it," he told reporters covering the 2003 court proceedings.

- Abdul Aziz, alias Imam Samudra meaning "Ruler of the Seas", 38

Samudra, of the Serang district in West Java, was the operational field commander of the Bali bombings and along with Mukhlas and Amrozi was sentenced to die for his crimes.

A computer technician with at least six other aliases, he was the only Bali bomber with a university degree.

He planned the Bali attacks, recruited the team of suicide bombers from West Java and coordinated the preparation.

Police say he confessed to his role in the plot, but during his trial he denied any involvement, saying he travelled to Bali to set up an internet cafe and export business.

He also denied the existence of Jemaah Islamiah and the involvement of its alleged spiritual leader Abu Bakar Bashir. But he also expressed happiness that his "martyrdom" would bring him closer to god.

He penned an autobiography in jail, titled Me Against the Terrorist!, which recounted his school years in Java and his time fighting with the Mujahideen Islamic militant group in Afghanistan.

Samudra was also involved in the Christmas Eve bombings of nine Christian churches across Indonesia in 2000, which killed 19 people.

Police claim he used a laptop computer smuggled into his jail cell to help organise the second Bali bombings in 2005, which killed 20 people including four Australians.