Cast your minds, if you’re old enough, to the year 20o2 when Indonesia’s deadliest terror attack, ripped through hundred of tourists, killing over 200, at two nightclubs in Kuta, Bali.
My gal lost a close friend at the Sari Club, with another traumatised beyond any sort of measure after seeing laughing drinkers vaporised by the shrapnel. On a beachfront wall at Bondi, a mural mourns the death of a fifteen-year-old local girl, killed by the religious zealots.
The fine gent who built the bombs was a Javanese man Umar Patek, born Hisyam bin Alizein in 1966.
A leading member of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), an al-Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian terror network, Patek built the car bomb detonated outside the Sari Club and a smaller device used in Paddy’s Bar.
His role earned him the nickname “Demolition Man” during his 2012 trial. After the attacks, Patek evaded the cops for nine years, moving through Indonesia, the Philippines, and Pakistan, where he was arrested in Abbottabad in 2011, months before Osama bin Laden’s death in the same city.
A $1 million U.S. bounty underscored his status as one of Asia’s most-wanted terrorists.
Extradited to Indonesia, Patek was convicted of premeditated murder and other charges and got a 20-year sentence. He claimed remorse, stating he opposed the bombings and was unaware of their full scope, which spared him the death penalty.
Indonesian authorities granted him multiple sentence reductions for good behaviour leading to his controversial parole in December 2022 after serving just over half his term.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese call the decision to release Patek “abhorrent,” and survivors like Andrew Csabi expressed skepticism about Patek’s claimed deradicalisation.
Now, Patek has turned his game of lighting people up into coffee with hte launch of his brand, Coffee RAMU 1966 by Umar Patek.
In an Instagram post, the daddy company pushing the brand writes:
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“Always be successful Mr. Umar Patek He was known for the wounds he left, now he is remembered for the aroma of coffee he brewed. Her life’s journey is not about a dark past, but about the courage to change and choose a path that brings peace. One man, one cup of coffee, and a million new hopes.”
To the Asian press Patek said, simply:
“Once, I concocted bombs, and now I concoct coffee.”
An interesting part of this dramatic pivot is the use of Patek’s name as the selling point of the coffee.
It suggests to me that he’s seen as a hero in Indonesia for his work in evaporating ten score Western tourists.
Or, do you think, Indonesians are better at forgiveness and see his story arc as one of redemption etc?
The post Convicted Bali Bomber, Linked to 200 Deaths, Starts Coffee Business appeared first on BeachGrit.
