Posted on 05/12/2003 1:07:22 PM PDT by knighthawk
RIGID and with tension etched on his face, burns victim Peter Hughes yesterday searched the eyes of accused Bali bomber Amrozi.
In them he saw fear and finally, after seven months of pain, felt relief and a sense of calm. He had come to Bali to watch the trial of the first of the men accused of almost killing him in the terrorist atrocities of October 12 last year.
"I could see the fear in this guy's eyes . . . I became quite calm when I saw his eyes. I think he knew where he was going to be," an emotional Mr Hughes said at Denpasar court yesterday.
"I saw a normal person. I saw someone who probably thinks his end is close."
So elated was he by his own personal response that Mr Hughes urged other victims of the bombing to come to the court, saying it was just the panacea he needed to soothe his raw emotions and hurting body.
Mr Hughes, from Perth, and still wearing bandages on his arms and legs, was the only Australian victim to attend the opening salvo in the trial of Amrozi Bin H. Nushasyim , who faces the death penalty for his role in planning and executing the Kuta bombings.
He said he came to Bali to represent all 88 Australian victims and other survivors, as a show of strength.
He had not anticipated how he would feel at that moment, when for the first time, he would lay eyes on the man who wanted to kill him and who nearly did.
"I had no thoughts about it to anticipate what I was going to think at the time . . . When Amrozi walked in I felt the tension lift out of my body. I felt really comfortable," he said.
Mr Hughes hopes Amrozi, if found guilty, gets the maximum sentence – death. With Mr Hughes was his 22-year-old son Leigh.
He is concerned that if Amrozi gets the death penalty he will die a martyr, with a smile on his face.
For much of yesterday's two-hour proceedings, Amrozi's trademark wide grin was absent.
He sat almost slumped in the bolted-down office chair reserved for the accused and witnesses, his back to the 200 media and officials who filled the auditorium court room.
Occasionally, he glanced at the prosecutors and his lawyers but did not swivel to face the audience.
In a show of defiance, when Chief Judge I Made Karna asked if he understood the charges and penalty, Amrozi turned to his lawyers and, in the direction of an ABC camera, gave a brief thumbs-up sign, a smirk on his face.
Since his arrest Amrozi has grown a wispy goatee-style beard. He had donned blue rubber thongs, three-quarter length pants and button down shirt for his day in the spotlight.
It was only after proceedings were adjourned for one week and Amrozi was being led from the court and past the cameras that the grin, which lights up his face, returned.
He was the centre of attention and clearly enjoying it.
The only time he was asked to speak during yesterday's proceedings was at the beginning when Judge Karna asked him a series of questions – his name, age, religion, occupation, where he was being detained, had he appointed lawyers and whether he understood the charges. His response at times was barely audible.
Proceedings were taken up with prosecutors outlining their case against Amrozi, reading a 33-page accusation letter to the court.
The address made no mention of the role of terrorist organisation Jemaah Islamiyah, which was behind the attacks.
It is alleged that Amrozi took part in a series of planning meetings, beginning in August 2002.
He was then given the task of buying the bomb chemicals, arranging transportation from Java to Bali and buying the L300 minivan which was later packed with explosives and detonated outside the Sari Club in Kuta's tourist strip. A total of 202 people were killed in the attack.
Prosecutor Urip Tri Gunawan revealed that the August meeting took place in a white Toyota Crown car in Central Java.
The four men, including Amrozi, and the bombing's commander Abdul Azis, alias Imam Samudra, discussed the conscience of Muslims and their duty to avenge Muslims "slaughtered" by the US and its allies in Afghanistan, Palestine, Kashmir, Ambon and Iraq.
"During the meeting, Abdul Azis alias Imam Samudra, declared that there was a great project, i.e. to declare war to the US and in this meeting some bombing targets were planned in Bali, which exact target would be decided later," Mr Gunawan outlined.
"The result of the bombings . . . had created a condition of terror or felling of unease and fright of the people at large in general, but in particular for the people in the province of Bali," he said.
After Mr Gunawan's address, three of Amrozi's team of nine lawyers rebutted the allegations, reminding the court the trial was about Amrozi's actions and not about his Muslim beliefs.
"From this morning, legally the status of Amrozi is an accused not a guilty person," they said.
After the defence's 40-minute rebuttal, in which they refuted Amrozi's role as a key planner in the attacks, the prosecution then requested three days to respond.
Because there are two public holidays in Bali this week, the case was adjourned until next Monday.
Peter Hughes left the court a happy man. Outside the the court a large group of Balinese people, watching proceedings on a big screen cheered as the allegations against Amrozi were detailed and jeered at the defence response.
The Balinese dislike Amrozi and his group intensely for the harm the bombing has done to their crucial tourist industry.
BRAVERY CAPTURED A NATION'S ADMIRATION
HIS burned body swelling rapidly and his white-grey skin already stretched taut, Peter Hughes looked directly into the TV camera and spoke eloquently about the need for courage.
And back home, Australia listened.
For a nation grieving an unthinkable tragedy, Mr Hughes's willingness to speak about the Bali bombing, just hours after being caught up in it, was a testament to his strength of character.
Along with AFL players Jason McCartney and Mick Martyn, the 42-year-old self-employed Perth roofer had been drinking beers in Paddy's Bar and discussing the antics of other revellers.
Then the bomb detonated in the Sari Club across the road.
All three suffered extensive injuries in the blast – the worst of which were sustained when the trio returned to Paddy's to rescue two women still trapped inside.
Mr Hughes was quick to shrug off accounts of his heroism, even insisting that other victims receive medical treatment first, arguing they needed it more urgently than him. But with more than half of his body burned in the bombing, his prognosis was grim.
A day after the interview at his bedside in Denpasar Hospital, his doctors' conclusions proved correct.
A day later, Mr Hughes was flown to Royal Adelaide Hospital after lapsing into a coma and being placed on life support. His burn injuries had gone to work, saving their worst for last.
The invisible burn wounds inside his airways had inflamed and swollen, making it impossible to breathe.
Fluid was pouring out of his skin and inside his body into areas where it did not belong, causing swelling of his limbs.
There were also serious shrapnel wounds to his legs, which Australian doctors compared to war injuries.
Mr Hughes's surgeon, John Greenwood of Royal Adelaide Hospital, said signs of the impending danger had not been detected in Bali.
"You can get people who are completely and utterly lucid with unsurvivable injuries and they are talking and asking to see people," he said.
"Then they get worse and stop talking and they go unconscious and can die. When I looked at Pete when he was in Bali on the television footage that we saw, I was desperate that somebody would lie him down and intubate him, because his voice had already started to go hoarse and that's the first sign really that the larynx is starting to close.
"The trouble with Denpasar was that there were no burns surgeons there and it wasn't until he came to Darwin and we met him that that realisation was stark. By that time the airway had markedly deteriorated such that we had to intubate him to save his life."
For the next fortnight, Australians waited anxiously for news of his condition. Finally, on November 20, after a transfer to Royal Perth Hospital, Mr Hughes's son Leigh emerged to announce that he had regained consciousness.
"He wanted me to say he's all right," Leigh said.
"He wanted me to say he's not the only one who's done it.
"He wants everyone to know there are a lot of other heroes out there."
THE MEETING THAT SET THE SCENE FOR MURDER
THE white Toyota Crown parked near a petrol station in Surakarta (Solo), central Java, with four men inside would have looked pretty innocuous.
But inside it last August an evil plot had its genesis.
The men discussed the duty and conscience of Muslims and decided that the tourist island of Bali would be the place to avenge the treatment of their Muslim brothers.
They felt they had a duty to act on behalf of Muslims "slaughtered" in Afghanistan, Palestine, Kashmir, Ambon and Iraq.
One of the men in the car was 40-year-old mechanic Amrozi. With him was Abdul Azis alias Imam Samudra, Idris, and a bomb expert known as Dulmatin.
After that meeting plans were put in place to bomb targets in Bali. The exact locations – the Sari Club and Paddy's Bar in central Kuta and the US Consulate in Denpasar – would be decided later.
Yesterday, on day one of Amrozi's trial in Denpasar, prosecutors spent 90 minutes outlining the series of meetings held from August to October when the group plotted the attack and then carried it out.
Prosecutor Urip Tri Gunawan also revealed that two of the group had died in the attack.
One, Feri alias Isa, was definitely a suicide bomber who wore a vest packed with explosives into Paddy's Bar.
Another, Arnasan or Iqbal, died either inside or very close to the L300 minivan which exploded outside the Sari Club.
It is not known how this bomb was detonated but suicide is suspected.
A total of almost 75 million rupiah ($15,000) had been spent on the operation.
Mr Gunawan alleged Amrozi had attended the car meeting, as well as another meeting in a home where the Bali bombing plans were finalised. Amrozi was given money to buy chemicals and the minivan.
Mr Gunawan said that one month (before) the bombing – on September 10 – Amrozi and four others left his village in Java and drove to Bali to survey the locations that would be bombed. Later in September Amrozi sent 20 boxes of chemicals by bus from Java to Bali.
They were collected by a co-accused and on October 3 Amrozi was ordered to bring the minivan to Bali, arriving with four others on October 5.
In the following week the bombs were made and, on October 12, the plan was executed, killing 202 people.
At a press conference after the court hearing, prosecutors refused to comment on why the role of terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah, was not mentioned in the case against Amrozi.
Leading figures of JI, including Amrozi's brother Mukhlas, have also been charged in relation to the bombing.
At a meeting in Thailand in February 2002, Mukhlas is said to have been appointed as a senior JI figure in the region.
However, Amrozi's lawyers, in response to the allegations, told the court yesterday the accusation letter against their client was not clear and disputed their client's role as a planner of the attacks.
They said that while the prosecution had claimed Amrozi was at planning meetings they had failed to outline what Amrozi is alleged to have said at those meetings.
"If he only attend the meetings and listens, it does not fulfil the element of planning," one lawyer said.
The defence also claimed that Amrozi's role ceased when the chemicals were delivered.
They objected to Amrozi being charged and facing the death penalty under the new anti-terrorism decree, passed in the wake of the bombing, submitting that if a crime occurred after a law change, the more lenient law must apply.
The defence strategy appears to be one of minimising Amrozi's role in a bid to ensure he is spared the death penalty.
When the court reconvenes next Monday, the prosecution will respond to the objections.
It is not known when the first witnesses will be called.
HATRED IN QUIET STREETS
BALI'S normally tranquil idyll seethed with rage yesterday as the first of the alleged bombers went on trial.
"Go to hell you bastard," a Balinese traditional security guard called as he watched the trial of Amrozi on a TV set outside the court.
He was one of about 300 guards wearing head coverings and carrying daggers who helped a massive police contingent to secure the trial.
Gathered under a tent beside the court, guards cheered prosecutors before booing Amrozi's defence lawyer when he criticized the indictment.
"Coward . . . dog," they called.
"As a Balinese I hope that Amrozi will get the death penalty because this person has destroyed our economy," said one guard.
Another large billboard proclaimed: "Prosecute and sentence to death traitors to the state of Indonesia, including the Bali bombers."
An Australian woman also called for vengeance. Kate Dalton, 44, who said three of her daughter's friends were victims of the bombing, conducted a one-woman protest outside court.
"Australians wants Amrozi for one week. Then you can take what is left of Amrozi for trial," said a message written on a white towel she displayed.
Australia lost 88 nationals in the bombing, the most of any country. Indonesia lost 38 people.
"It's too easy for Amrozi to have a death sentence," she said. "I want him to suffer in the most primitive jail for the rest of his life."
The relatives of Balinese victims also said death is too good for Amrozi.
"I don't want him to receive the death sentence," one young woman said. "It will not be painful for him."
UNRULY CROWD GIVES POLICE A HARD TIME
HUNDREDS of police officers were drafted to control crowds at yesterday's court hearing.
None of the 400 officers tried to stop them from throwing food at the TV screen and shouting at key moments in the two-and-a-half hour hearing.
Police asked most locals not to enter the courtroom, setting up a television screen outside for people to watch proceedings.
But around 100 locals defied calls by the authorities to stay away.
Amrozi arrived in a convoy of police vehicles, watched by some of the hundreds of police with riot shields who surrounded the makeshift courthouse in Denpasar.
He may have been called the smiling assassin, but Amrozi bin Nurhasyim wasn't grinning yesterday.
Instead, he appeared tense, stony-faced and calm as he sat facing five Indonesian judges who hold his life in their hands.
Security was tight and Indonesian authorities had gone to great lengths to ensure an orderly event, preventing any opportunity for abuse of the defendant or even the chaotic scenes of people smoking and talking that are so characteristic of Indonesian courts.
He said nothing as he was rushed into the courtroom past waiting reporters and armed police officers.
As the prosecution read the indictment against him, Amrozi sat fidgeting in an office chair, which was bolted to the floor of the Nari Graha auditorium.
Sporting a newly-grown goatee beard, he looked somehow shrunken as he faced the panel of judges of the Denpasar District Court, sitting just metres away.
Amrozi gave a series of single word answers to questions from the judges, including his age, religion and whether he had a criminal record, and remained quiet as lawyers argued over procedural matters.
Amrozi is accused of procuring the van used to carry the Sari Club bomb, driving it to Bali, and purchasing one tonne of chemicals used to make the explosive.
He faces the death penalty.
Australian bombing survivor Peter Hughes, watching from a front row seat, said today he saw fear in Amrozi's eyes.
Perhaps, but there was one brief glimpse of the "old" Amrozi.
At one point, with his back to onlookers, glanced out through the window of the court, looked straight down the lens of an Australian camera and silently raised his thumb.
Outside the courtroom too was a crowd of Balinese, who did little to hide their anger against the defendant, jeering as they watched live TV coverage of the trial opening.
Security was tight and Indonesian authorities had gone to great lengths to ensure an orderly event, preventing any opportunity for abuse of the defendant or even the chaotic scenes of people smoking and talking that are so characteristic of courts here.
The island's predominantly Hindu population want to see Amrozi punished with the death penalty after he confessed to planning and helping the attack.
The bombs at two nightclubs at Kuta Beach were intended to avenge the United States and its allies.
Police asked most locals not to enter the courtroom, instead setting up a TV screen outside for people to watch proceedings.
Yesterday around 100 locals defied calls by the authorities to stay away.
The group included taxi drivers who have been idle for the past seven months, their incomes decimated by the flight of tourists from the island.
It would have been impossible for Amrozi to have ignored the noise.
"I don't want him to receive the death sentence, it will not be painful for him," said one Balinese woman who identified herself as a relative of a victim.
"We want him to be tortured."
SUSPECTS WRITING BOOKS
TWO leading suspects in the Bali bombings have written books to raise money for their families in case they receive long jail terms or the death sentence.
Ali Ghufron – alias Mukhlas – and Imam Samudra have submitted the manuscripts to their lawyers for publication after any sentence is passed.
"We are entrusted to keep the manuscripts. We will decide to have the books published when there's a permanent decision on their fate," Adnan said.
He said any money raised from the sale of the books would be used for the welfare of their families.
Mukhlas's brother Amrozi went on trial today for his part in the Bali bombings, which killed 202 people last October 12.
Investigators say Mukhlas is a regional leader of the Southeast Asian-based Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terror group and served as a motivator in the Bali bombings while Samudra was the field coordinator of the attack.
JI is blamed for the Bali bombings and other blasts in Indonesia in recent years.
Mukhlas' book is entitled My Defence of the Bali Bombing while Samudra's dwells on the Islamic struggle and movement, lawyer Wirawan Adnan said.
Never mind that he is a murderer - he destroyed our economy!
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