The Sydney Morning Herald, May 16, 2006 - 9:30PM
I want to die, says Bali bombing suspect
[PHOTO: Mohammad Cholily, a terror suspect accused of involvement in the 2005
Bali bombing, sits in a courtroom during his trial in Denpasar, Bali. Photo: Reuters.]
An Islamic militant on trial for terrorist bombings last year on Indonesia's Bali island
said today that he is ready to die as a martyr and defended his right to make bombs.
Mohammad Cholily, 28, is one of four suspects on trial at Bali District Court for the
suicide bombings at three restaurants that killed 20 people. The attacks were blamed
on the regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah.
"What is wrong with people learning how to make bombs?" he told reporters as he
arrived at the courthouse in a high-security minivan. "I want to meet death. Everybody
will die eventually. Why can't I choose how to die?"
Cholily is not contesting charges that he assembled explosives used in the attacks.
He expressed regret that information he provided to police under interrogation led
them to alleged chief bomb-maker Azahari bin Husin, killed in a raid in November at
his hideout in Batu, East Java.
"I feel guilty, because my words caused the death of a man," he said. "Bombs are
hard to make, the most important thing is that I learned the essence of life from
Azahari."
Cholily said he never met the other Bali bombers because "whenever I asked, Azahari
always replied that there was no need for me to know them".
Cholily's attorney, reading from a statement, told the panel of judges his client was
forced to confess to crimes he did not commit after being tortured for a week. Cholily
received "slaps in the face, blows in the stomach, kicks in the genitals and was
stripped naked and threatened with a gun in his mouth", the lawyer said.
He said Cholily was coerced into confessing to charges of glorifying terror and
transporting the explosives.
The alleged torture was said to have occurred before Cholily was transferred to Bali's
capital, Denpasar, for trial, but it was unclear where it happened or at whose hands.
If found guilty, the defendants - Cholily, Dwi Widianto, Abdul Azis and Anif
Solchanudin - could face the death penalty.
All are accused of supplying and transporting explosives and sheltering Noordin Top,
the most wanted South-East Asian terror suspect and alleged key group leader.
AP
Copyright © 2005. The Sydney Morning Herald.
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