The memories of the more than 200 individuals who perished in the Bali bombings twenty years ago, the deadliest terrorist strikes in this Southeast Asian archipelago, affected hundreds of people.
The families of victims, survivors of the attacks and representatives of the embassies of some of them carried flowers in a ceremony held in the tourist city of Kuta in the Indonesian Bali, where militants linked to al -Qaeda bombed bombs in Marcus and a bar on October 12, 2002.
Australian survivor Andrew Kassabi, 50, who told Reuters, said he had a “second chance in life” after the bombing, that Patek’s sentence of 20 years in prison should not be reduced early.
The anti-terrorist campaign is still going strong in the most populous Islamic nation in the world 20 years after the bombings in Bali.
According to data from the Center for Extremist Studies and Extremism, more than 2,300 people have been detained on terrorism-related offences since a national anti-terrorism unit called Densus 88 was established in the wake of the attacks.
228 persons were detained on suspicion of terrorism in 2020. The authorities’ resolve to pursuing the suspects in court despite a decline in the number of terrorist acts in Indonesia was confirmed by the number’s increase to 370 last year.
Even in more recent years, the suspects persisted in looking into the Bali bombings.
In the town of South Sumatra Island in December 2020, the police detained Ares Somarsono, 58, whose real name is Aref Sonarsu but who goes by the alias Zolkarin. He was the last person detained following the attack in 2002, and the court gave him a 15-year prison term for his involvement. The Indonesian police believe it to be the brains behind numerous further attacks in the nation.
The Indonesian authorities considered handing an early parole to Hossam Bin Alzin, 55, also known by his alias Omar Patek, who was identified as a leader of Al Qaeda and was responsible for the Bali attack. Patek, according to the Indonesian government, is one example. On the successful efforts to reform convicted terrorists and have planned to use it to influence others so that they do not commit terrorist acts..
Bali bombing survivors: “I have no resentment, I forgive, and I have a second chance at life.”
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