Victim's brother targeted bomber
By John Stapleton
16sep03
THE brother of a Bali bombing victim has claimed he travelled to the island to kill one of the bombers during the trials.
"The courtroom - well I tell you straight, I had organised my will and I was going there to kill him," Louie Zervos told the ABC's Four Corners last night. "I got there the day before and I went to kill him.
"I finally got my senses about me and I couldn't really move in anyway, the feds were all over me."
Mr Zervos, from the eastern Sydney suburb of Kingsford, told the program he had written his will and had not expected to return to Australia after the murder. In June outside the Bali court, he held a photograph of smiling girls as Bali bombers Amrozi bin Nurhasyim and Imam Samudra were led past. "I just wanted him to see what he did," the Sydney man said at the time.
As Imam Samudra walked past him, the militant extremist shouted that Muslims would "crush Christianity and destroy the people of the cross".
Mr Zervos's sister, Louiza, his cousins Dimmy and Elizabeth Kotronikis, and a friend, Christine Betmalik, were killed in the October 12 Sari Club blast. His cousin Maria Elfes had just married and she and her husband Kosta, who were not in the club when the bomb hit, had taken four of the wedding party on their honeymoon.
Mr Zervos said thoughts about his family and the close attentions of the Australian Federal Police had stopped him from carrying out the plan, but he had remained angry.
"I've become very racist at the moment," he said. "I hate them, I hate them, and I know it's wrong - I tell myself it's wrong mate."
Mr Zervos said it was proving impossible to move on.
"Some closure takes longer than others," he said. "I've got none. I mean, of course, life goes on, right, but our lives will never ever be the same - ever."
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