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