Fourth Bali bomb suspect to go on trial

Fourth Bali bomb suspect to go on trial

An Indonesian man who has admitted building one of the two bombs that ripped through a Bali nightclub district last year stands trial Monday, facing the death penalty if found guilty.

Ali Imron, 30, is the fourth key suspect to stand trial over the Oct. 12 bombings that killed 202 people, mostly foreigners on holiday on the Indonesian resort island.

Proceedings against his older brothers, Amrozi and Mukhlas, and the alleged mastermind of the attack, Imam Samudra, are already underway.

In contrast to those suspects, Imron has expressed regret for the bombings and believes they are not in accordance with Islamic teachings, his lawyer, Suyanto, said Sunday.

"Imron is not like Amrozi," said Suyanto, who goes by a single name like many Indonesians. "He believes that jihad in Bali is wrong. He is not proud of what he did."

Imron is one of more than 30 people arrested over the blasts. At least nine are accused of playing a direct role in the attack.

The blasts have been blamed on Jamaah Islamiyah, a regional al-Qaeda-linked group that allegedly wants to establish a Southeast Asian-wide Islamic state.

Shortly after his arrest, Imron gave a bizarre media conference in which he apologized to the victims' families and showed how he and others allegedly assembled the explosives used in one of the bombs.

"In my heart, I regret this," he said at the time. "I want to apologize to the victims' families in Indonesia and to foreign families."

Suyanto said that Ali Imron was asking forgiveness from the victims' families, and suggested that he was expecting his client to receive the death penalty.

"If he feels that society has forgiven him, he will happily receive a death sentence," he said.

Last week, Imam Samudra, who shouts "God is Great" several times each time he enters the courtroom, argued that the attacks were justified under Islam because they avenged the deaths of innocent Muslims.

He admits that he was involved in the bombings but denies that he masterminded them.

A verdict is expected next month in the trial of Amrozi, who allegedly purchased the explosives used in the attack. Prosecutors have demanded the death penalty. -- AP