Alleged mastermind of Bali bombings denies he was involved

THE alleged mastermind of last year’s Bali bombings appeared in court yesterday, denying involvement in the atrocity while lawyers for the first man to have been convicted for the attack said they were ready to file an appeal.

Imam Samudra, a 33-year-old textile merchant, told judges he had nothing to do with the October 12 blasts that killed 202 people, including 26 Britons.

Prosecutors say Samudra who could also be executed if convicted was the brains behind the plot and that he recruited and trained the bombers.

About three dozen men, all accused of being members of the al-Qaida linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror group, have been arrested for the bombings.

Last week an Indonesian court brought down the first conviction in the case, sentencing Amrozi bin Nurhasyim to death. Amrozi's lawyers said they would file an appeal later yesterday.

In a formal defence plea to the court, Samudra acknowledged he had surveyed several locations in Bali with another key suspect, Ali Imron.

"I only took a walk around Bali with Ali Imron. I did not know what he was planning," he said, reading out the statement.

"I saw many foreigners who were drunk. They were disgusting. They made me sick," he said.

Samudra claimed the US and its allies had attacked and mistreated Muslims.

"Muslims have been made scapegoats for American terrorism around the world," Samudra said.

When asked by judges what he felt about Australia, he replied: "Australia's intervention in East Timor was an act of terrorism."

Australia headed the international peacekeeping troops who stopped Indonesian military and its militia proxies destroying much of East Timor after a UN sponsored ballot, which lead to the independence of Indonesia's former colony in 1999.

Meanwhile, lawyers for Amrozi, said they will appeal his conviction and death sentence.

Amrozi, known as the "smiling bomber", was convicted last Thursday of helping plan and execute the attacks. He has repeatedly expressed a readiness to die as a martyr and appeared overjoyed when the sentence was read out.

"We have persuaded him to exhaust all avenues to get justice. He was guilty for his role in the attack, but he was not the planner so we do not think he should be shot to death," said his lawyer, Oktriyan.

Death sentences, which are rare in Indonesia, are carried out by a firing squad comprising 15 officers from the paramilitary branch of the national police, known as the Mobile Brigades.

But Oktriyan said the appeal would note that there was no evidence other than testimonies of other defendants placing Amrozi at the planning sessions, and that these were weak and inconsistent.

At least four of the 35 members of the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist gang captured since last year's attacks face charges that carry a possible death sentence.