JAKARTA, June 22 (UPI) -- A court in Jakarta has handed down a 20-year jail sentence to a man accused of helping to make the deadly Bali bombs that killed more than 200 people in 2002.
Hisyam bin Ali Zein, also known as Umar Patek, helped mix chemicals for making the bombs planted at Paddy's Bar and the Sari Club in the resort of Kuta.
The dead were from 21 countries, including 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians and 28 Britons.
Pakistani authorities arrested Patek in January 2011 in the garrison town of Abbottabad -- near where U.S. Navy Seals killed Osama bin Laden -- and extradited him to Indonesia in August.
The 20-year sentence for Patek -- a member of the banned terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah and also wanted by the United States and the Philippines -- was less than the life-in-prison demanded by prosecutors, a report by Indonesia's Antara news agency said.
His sentence was less because of his repentance in court, Antara said. Patek apologized to the families of the victims as well as the Christian community, the general public and government of Indonesia.
But Patek always denied he had anything to do with planting the Bali bombs and told the court during a session in May that he didn't want the bombs to be detonated in Bali.
Patek said he tried to reason with the people making the bombs, a report in the Jakarta Globe said at the time.
"I was very sad and regret that the incident happened," Patek said. "I was against it from the start, I never agreed with their methods."
Patek had said he believed the Bali bombers were motivated by the Palestinian conflict.
"They wanted to bomb a place with a lot of Westerners in retaliation for the killing of Muslims in Palestine," he said.
"I asked 'Why Bali? Jihad should be carried out in Palestine instead.' But they said they didn't know how to get to Palestine. Dulmatin told me not to think so hard, just to help."
Dulmatin was among other Bali bombing suspects who have been killed before being brought to trial. Indonesian police killed Dulmatin during a raid in March 2010.
He was a senior member of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah, which allegedly has links to al-Qaida.
Other people involved include Imam Samudra, Amrozi Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron who were executed in November 2008 for planning the attacks.
Another suspect, Azahari bin Husin, a Malaysian believed to be the technical mastermind behind the bombings, was killed in a police raid on his hideout in Indonesia in 2005.
Still alive and in detention at the U.S. base in Guantanamo, Cuba, is Riduan Isamuddin, also known as Hambali. He was captured in a joint operation by the CIA and Thai police in 2005.
Patek also was found guilty of charges relating to the Christmas Eve 2000 attacks on Jakarta churches which killed 19 people.
