Bali Bomber Umar Patek causes outrage after starting coffee business, using deadly attacks to promote venture

7NEWS

2 days ago

The terrorist responsible for making the bombs that killed more than 200 people — including 88 Aussies — in Bali is using his role in the deadly attack to market his new business.
Umar Patek was convicted of creating the car bomb that exploded outside two busy Kuta nightclubs in 2002 and was one of the world's most wanted men after going on the run for nine years after the incident.
He served only 11 years of his 20-year jail sentence, and just three years after his release, he is causing outrage again.
Patek has launched a new coffee business, claiming he is now 'brewing peace'.
The business, Coffee RAMU 1966 by Umar Patek, is located in Surabaya, the capital of East Java. The name RAMU is a reversal of his name Umar.
'Once, I concocted bombs, and now I concoct coffee,' Patek told the South China Morning Post.
Patek said he wanted to start a new life and the only option for him was to launch his own business because 'no one wanted to hire a convicted criminal'.
'Before, I was known for something that hurt the world,' he said.
'Now I have chosen a different path.
'Before, bitterness used to destroy, now (the) bitterness (of coffee) heals.'
A restaurant in the region, Hedon Estate, has helped Patek to launch the business.
'I thought it was so humanitarian of them to help me, particularly as the owner of the cafe is not Muslim. I hope that my new business will be a success and I will be able to be independent again,' he said.
His new career path and disgraceful marketing tactic has left families of the Bali Bombing victims' outraged.
WA's Peter Hughes, who survived the bombings, said it was 'disgusting' that Patek was still held in high regard in Indonesia.
'It doesn't surprise me. We will not be held silent to this low life human,' he said.
Mr Hughes said the sentences handed down to Patek and all those behind the bombings were 'disgraceful.'
'Even though it's over 20 years, there's still people suffering in silence. As far as the terrorists go, they can go to hell,' he said.
Patek was also convicted in connection with the 2000 Christmas Eve bombings which took place in Jakarta and eight other Indonesian cities and claimed 18 lives.
After the Bali bombings, he hid out in Pakistan and the Philippines before being detained in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011 and extradited to Indonesia.
He told the publication he had apologised to the victims many times, both publicly and privately.
'If I apologise, people say that I am pretending and being strategic,' he said. 'If I don't apologise people will say I am arrogant and don't care. So everything is always wrong.'
Sandra Thompson, the mother of 29-year-old Australian rugby player Clint who died in the attack, said Patek has never paid for the atrocity.
'Has this man repented? Does he still think what he did was morally right? Or has he just served a sentence then moved on?' she queried.
'Two hundred and two lives plus an unborn baby and survivors still living with the effects of their injuries. Has he paid for that? Never, if he has no remorse.
'I thought I had forgiven, then another one is allowed to live a normal life. A life he took from all those families. My life has never been the same.'