3 days ago
Convicted Bali bombmaker Umar Patek behind the deadly plot which killed 88 Australians launches cafe business
Convicted terrorist Umar Patek, who was the main bomb maker in the 2002 Bali bombings which killed more than 200 people, including 88 Australians, has launched a new café business, just a few hundred kilometres away from the devastating barbarism.
Patek, whose real name is Hisyam bin Alizein, was released from prison in 2022 after serving 11 of a 20-year sentence, has claimed he has chosen 'another way' by launching his new coffee roasting business 'RAMU Coffee 1966 by Umar Patek', Ramu being a reversal of his own name.
The former member of Indonesian Islamist group Jemaah Islamiyah said he had been known for something that 'hurt the world', but had now 'chosen a different path', as he plans to unveil his business on Tuesday in the Indonesian city of Surabaya.
'Now, I am brewing flavours and brewing peace,' he told South China Morning Post.
Patek spoke to the outlet at the Hedon Estate café, which will stock his beans, and said before 'bitterness used to destroy', but now the 'bitterness (of coffee) heals'.
'Once, I concocted bombs, and now I concoct coffee,' Patek said.
Patek told This Week in Asia he had told Indonesian media of his dream to build a business, with the owner of Hedon Estate reaching out and making it a reality.
The café in Surabaya will be the base for his business launch, with Hedon Estate donating his equipment and the coffee beans to make his products.
'I thought it was so humanitarian of them to help me, particularly as the owner of the café is not Muslim. I hope that my new business will be a success and I will be able to be independent again,' he said.
However, Sandra Thompson, the mother of 29-year-old Australian Clint Thompson, who was killed in the Bali bombings, questioned whether Patek had 'repented' for his crimes.
'Has this man repented? Does he still think what he did was morally right? Or has he just served a sentence then moved on?' Ms Thomson told the South China Morning Post.
'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.'
Mr Clint was a promising rugby league player and president of the Coogee Dolphins squad when he and five other teammates were killed in the blast.
Patek maintained he had apologised both publicly and privately.
'If I apologise, people say that I am pretending and being strategic… if I don't apologise people will say I am arrogant and don't care,' he said.
'This is not just about coffee. It is about change. It is about me choosing a new life.'
Ms Thomspon said Patek was 'not important' in her life, but while she thought she could forgive, 'another one is allowed to live a normal life'.
'A life he took from all those families. My life has never been the same,' she said.
Patek's impending café launch comes months after Sydney man, Erik de Haart, credited with saving lives in the immediate aftermath of the Bali bombings, died at the age of 67.
Mr De Haart was with the Coogee Dolphins rugby league team in Kuta when the terrorists detonated the bombs.
In 2023, two men convicted of conspiring in the Bali bombings, Mohammed Farik bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir bin Lep, were released from Guantanamo Bay following a plea deal in which they provided evidence against the alleged mastermind Hambali.
Following his arrest, Patek, claimed he helped make the last 50 kilograms of the near one-tonne bomb which was placed in a van outside the Sari Club in Kuta.
Patek was also convicted in connection to the 2000 Christmas Eve bombing at a church, which killed 18 people.
He evaded capture for almost a decade after the Bali bombings, and moved between Pakistan and the Philippines, where he was affiliated with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) militant group, before he was finally extradited in 2011 from Abbottabad, Pakistan, the same place Osama bin Laden was killed in a raid by US Navy SEALs.
