Coming this Friday 9
November 2012, it will be the fourth anniversary of the execution of the Bali Bombers in Indonesia. I planned to blog more about Amrozi on how he made me switched from being a
strong opponent to supporter of capital punishment and I will do it on the same
day, he was executed. But before that, I will give some information about the
other two Bali Bombers, but in this post, I blog about Mukhlas after I had
blogged about Imam Samudra first, I got the information about him from
Wikipedia and also other news sources.
Huda bin
Abdul Haq (also known as Ali Ghufron, Muklas or
Mukhlas) (February 1960 – 9 November 2008) was an Indonesian who was
convicted and executed for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings. He was a senior
and influential Jemaah Islamiah leader with ties to Osama bin Laden.
Early life:
Different reports
place Muklas' birthdate at either 2 February or 9 February 1960, in Solokuro,
Lamongan, East Java. He attended the Al-Mukmin Islamic school founded by Abu
Bakar Bashir with his brothers Amrozi and Ali Imron. He recruited these two
brothers to manufacture the explosives and purchase the vehicles used in the
2002 Bali bombing.
Afghanistan:
After graduating
from Al-Mukmin, Muklas sought to continue his Jihad studies at various training
camps in Afghanistan. He fought in the Afghanistan-Soviet civil war between
1980 and 1989, as a member of Osama bin Laden's "International
Brigade." Muklas admitted that he met with Osama bin Laden in 1987, and
that; "he and other top JI personnel were careful to nurture ties to bin
Laden and al-Qaeda in the years that followed." Muklas secured the funds,
through senior JI member Hambali, needed to perform the 2002 Bali bombing.
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| Mukhlas (left) with his brother, Amrozi (right). |
Jemaah Islamiah:
After the eventual
defeat of the Soviet Union and installation of the Taliban as Afghanistan's
rulers, Muklas returned to South East Asia to conduct operations for Jemaah
Islamiah. He was named head of JI's "Mantiqi One", a regional network
covering Sumatra, Singapore, Malaysia and southern Thailand.
Muklas then
co-founded an Islamic school in Malaysia that was to be used as a local
training ground for JI operatives.
Lukmanul Hakiem:
In 1991, Muklas,
at the behest of Abdullah Sungkar and Abu Bakar Bashir founded Lukmanul Hakiem,
a pesantren or Islamic boarding school based on his old school at
Ngruki. It was created to link up with other madrassahs and serve to recruit
future jihadists. Lukmanul Hakiem employed Noordin Mohammad Top, a Malaysian
national, as school principal and he used this role to recruit Muhammad Rais
and others for the 2003 Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta.
Abu Bakar Bashir,
Abdullah Sungkar, Muklas, Noordin Top, all taught at the school. JI bomb maker
Azahari Husin served on the board of directors. Noordin Top was promoted to
director, when Malaysian law was adjusted, however Muklas continued to operate
as leader by proxy.
2002 Bali bombing:
Muklas himself
admitted to being present and in command at the planning meetings for the Bali
bombings, and recruited two of his brothers to help assemble and transport the
bombs used in the Bali attacks. A sum of money, amounting to approximately US
$35,000 was contributed to the Bali bombings by Wan Min Wan Mat, a leader of the
JI network in Malaysia. This money was transferred through Hambali, Jemaah
Islamiah's head of operations. The money was provided in cash, specifically in
US dollars, and according to claims by Muklas, the money was not just used for
the bombings in Bali, but also in other attacks in Indonesia.
After acquiring
the al Qaeda funds, Muklas recruited two of his brothers to handle the
logistics of the bomb plot. Younger brother Amrozi, who is also situated on
"death row" for his conviction in the attack, personally selected the
Mitsubishi van that was to be used outside the Sari Club. Amrozi also assembled
the car bomb, and backpack bomb used at Paddy's Pub, in an empty warehouse in
Denpasar, Bali's capital city.
Capture:
In December 2002,
Muklas was arrested while hiding in Java. He confessed to police that he was
the head of one of Jemaah Islamiah's four cells and had ordered the Bali
bombings. He admitted to being present and in command at the planning meetings
for the Bali bombings, and that he had recruited two of his brothers to help
assemble and transport the bombs used in the attacks.
He also confessed
that another Jemaah Islamiah leader Riduan Isamuddin, (also known as Hambali),
had provided the funds for the attacks. In a transcript of his police interview
he explained;
"I do not
know for sure the source of the aforementioned money from Hambali, most
probably it was from Afghanistan, that is, from Sheikh Osama bin Laden. As far
as I know, Hambali did not have a source of funds except from
Afghanistan."
A JI leader in
Malaysia, Wan Min bin Wan Mat, later revealed to police that he had given
Muklas cash amounting to approximately US $35,000 for the operation, at
Hambali's request. He also asserted that the money had come directly from
al-Qaeda, and that the money was not just to be used for the bombings in Bali,
but also for other attacks in Indonesia.
At his trial, two
hundred witnesses linked Muklas with the attacks.
Trial and sentence:
On 2 October 2003,
before a panel of five Indonesian judges, Muklas was found guilty and sentenced
to death. He was the third Bali bomber to receive the death penalty after his
brother Amrozi and Imam Samudra. Judge Cokorda Rai Suamba summed up the trial
with; "The defendant has been legally and convincingly proven guilty of
having, together with the others, planned an act of terrorism and also of being
in illegal possession of explosives, We punish the defendant with the death
sentence."
Muklas showed no
remorse during the proceedings and used his time in court to denounce George W.
Bush and the United States. He declared that the terrorist atrocity was
"carried out to avenge the suffering of Muslims at the hands of America
and Israel."
Upon hearing the
sentence he immediately started screaming "Allahu Akbar" and began
doing star jumps. He then hugged his lawyers and told the court the judgement
was made under laws he did not believe in. Despite his professed wish to die as
a martyr, he like Amrozi and Samudra appealed against the sentence. During the
trial Muklas showed no remorse for the attacks and like other Bali suspects,
used court appearances to verbally attack the United States.
Execution:
Originally
incarcerated in Denpasar's prison, he was moved to the high-security prison
island of Nusakambangan in October 2005.
Together with the
two other bombers who received death sentences, he launched a constitutional
challenge against the use of firing squads. Mukhlas preferred beheading.
In October 2008 he
remained unrepentant and claimed revenge would be taken for his death. During
the month, his final appeals were rejected and the Attorney General's office
announced that he would be executed by firing squad in early November 2008.
According to a
source in Indonesia's Attorney General Office, the execution were to be done
before the end of Sunday, 9 November 2008. This was reportedly delayed from the
original plan to allow a representative from the family to identify the body
post-execution. From Mukhlas's family, his younger brother, Ali Fauzi were sent
as a representative of his family.
Mukhlas, along
with Amrozi bin Nurhasyim and Imam Samudra were shot on 00.15 local time on 9
November 2008. They were executed by firing squad.
Mukhlas on trial:
By Darren Goodsir in Denpasar, Bali
June 6 2003
June 6 2003
The leader of the Bali operation, Mukhlas, the
eldest of three brothers accused over the nightclub attacks, spent 20 years
perfecting his terrorist training across Asia, according to the prosecution in
the Kuta bombings trial.
Details of Mukhlas's extraordinary career in
bomb-making, financing and terrorist plotting are revealed in his brief of
evidence, obtained by the Herald ahead of his trial on June 16.
Prosecutors allege Mukhlas, 43, was the South-East
Asian operations chief of Jemaah Islamiah, banned last year over its links to
global terrorism.
The dossier notes that Mukhlas met Osama bin Laden
while fighting in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
The leaking of the prosecution files came as the
first man imprisoned in relation to the attacks on the Sari Club and Paddy's
Irish pub, Silvester Tendean, was released. He served seven months for writing
bogus receipts for Amrozi, to whom he sold more than a tonne of chemicals used
to make the Bali bombs, which killed 202 people.
Tendean is expected to come to Bali next week to
testify in the Amrozi trial.
Outside the makeshift court at the Nari Graha
complex yesterday, a survivor of the October 12 attacks, Stuart Anstee, told of
his "frustration" over Tendean's release, saying it was amazing the
prisoner had already been freed.
In the Mukhlas dossier, prosecutors detail how he
met the alleged spiritual leader of JI, Abu Bakar Bashir, in Malaysia in 1982,
working in an Islamic boarding school.
Pressure from local authorities forced the gang
into Thailand, from where Mukhlas travelled to Afghanistan.
He met bin Laden at a town on the Pakistan border
in 1987, and returned to Malaysia in 1989.
The charges state that Mukhlas attended a meeting
in Bangkok where top JI lieutenants agreed to mount a major operation against
America and their allies.
But it was not until August last year, at a house
in Solo, Central Java, that Mukhlas was chosen "because of his age,
experience and training" as JI's regional operations boss, supervising all
plans.
However, it was Imam Samudra who took control of
selecting sites for the attacks.
Yesterday, prosecutors responded to defence
objections over the charges laid against Samudra, the alleged field commander.
As has been his custom, Samudra urged his two-man legal team to raise their
hands above their heads in religious chants.
On his way from court, he turned to reporters and
yelled: "The US is my enemy."
Amrozi, who on Wednesday was involved in a slanging
match with his brother Ali Imron, also appeared in court yesterday, with nine
new witnesses giving testimony.
Two workers at Tendean's chemical shop told how
they loaded Amrozi's van on three separate occasions with potassium chloride.
The last time, 40 white plastic sacks, each weighing 25 kilograms, were carried
to the vehicle.
Other witnesses told of seeing Amrozi at hotels,
boarding houses and other apartments in the weeks before the bombings.
Across town, at the Denpasar District Court, four
men - all of whom were allegedly prepared to be suicide bombers - faced trial
over a jewellery store robbery in Serang, west Java.
The proceeds of the robbery, 2.5 kilograms of
assorted gold items and 5 million rupiah ($1000) in cash, were allegedly used
to help finance the October 12 attacks.
All three cases will resume on Monday.
Mastermind Muklas sentenced
to firing squad
October
2, 2003
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Sentenced to death ... Muklas. Photo: AFP
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Islamic
teacher Muklas, the gang leader of the Bali bombers, jumped into the air after
being found guilty and sentenced to death by an Indonesian court today.
Also
known as Ali Ghufron, Muklas, 43, yelled ``Allahu Akbar'' (God is Great) after
being sentenced, and swung around to onlookers before performing a star jump
and saying he would appeal.
Smiling
broadly, he consulted his lawyers, greeting them with hugs, and told the court
the judgement was made under laws he did not believe in.
``I will
appeal,'' he said.
A few
moments earlier the panel of five judges found him guilty of terrorism for his
role in the October 12 bombings on Kuta Beach's Jalan Legian which killed 202
people, including 88 Australians.
``The
defendant ... has been legally and convincingly proven guilty of having,
together with others, planned an act of terrorism and also of being in illegal
possession of explosives,'' said Judge Cokorda Rai Suamba.
``We
punish the defendant with the death sentence.''
Mukhlas
is the third Bali bomber to receive a death sentence for the attack last
October 12, which is blamed on the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah terror
group.
Like
Muklas, Amrozi and Imam Samudra are also appealing against their sentences
despite their professed wish to die as martyrs.
During
the trial Muklas showed no remorse for the attacks and like other Bali
suspects, used court appearances to attack the United States.
He called
US President George W Bush a terrorist and said the Bali bombings - the
bloodiest terrorist atrocity since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United
States - were carried out to avenge the suffering of Muslims at the hands of
America and Israel.
Muklas
also admitted to having been the operations chief of Jemaah Islamiah - the
al-Qaeda-linked extremist group accused of the Bali bombings and other
terrorist attacks throughout South East Asia.
He also
admitted to travelling to Afghanistan in the 1980s and fighting alongside
al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
AFP
Should Mukhlas be allowed to breathe?
Ask yourself these 4 questions:
1. Can you truly rehabilitate a terrorist?
2. Does life without parole really mean what it
is? Why is Umar Patek only given 20 years and can be
granted parole after 15 years? What if Mukhlas was only sentenced to life
imprisonment?
3. Some of those Bali Bombers have either been
executed or killed by military action. What use is it to keep some of them
alive?
4. If terrorist do not fear the death penalty,
why did Mukhlas joined the other 2 Bali Bombers in appealing against their
death sentence?
Similar to his brother, Amrozi,
Mukhlas is another terrorist, who just want nothing but a lot of attention. I
am glad that he is dead and gone, so I cannot see his smiling face anymore.
Did he die a martyr? To his close friends and families, maybe yes. But for
the people of the world, no way, he died as an evil murderer!
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