Bali bomber suspect Patek admits assembling bombs

JAKARTA, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Bali bomber suspect Umar Patek on Monday said he assembled bombs used for exploding two night clubs in Kuta Street, Bali in 2002 that killed 202 people, but denied masterminding the plot and involvement in Christmas blasts in 2000 and supplying weapons to Indonesia.

Patek was the most wanted terrorist suspect in Asia and the U.S. government priced his head with 1 million U.S. dollars bounty when the Pakistani authorities captured him in January 25.

The defendant lawyer Ashludin Hatjan said after a court session on the defendant exception in West Jakarta district court said that the charge against Patek was obscure as it was applied retroactively. "It is illegal, this means the prosecutors imply the principle of retroactive in this case. The Supreme Court has rejected to the application. It is clear that the charges of the prosecutors are obscure and it should be stated that it can not be accepted (by the law)," the lawyer said.

Indonesia's anti terrorist bill was passed into law in 2003.

On the accusation of planning murder, Patek denied the charge as it was not found any evidence in the prosecutor conviction, the lawyer said.

He said that Patek was only invited by one of the masterminds of the Bali bombing Imam Samudra, who was executed along with two other masterminds Ali Gufron and Amrozi in 2008, to assemble the explosive materials. "In the chronology read by prosecutors, there has not been any evidence of the involvement of Patek on the action. He was only asked by Imam Samudra to come to Bali and then he assembled the bombs," he said.