Bali bomber Ali Imron’s path to terror began at 10

A chillingly candid interview with Bali bomber Ali Imron 13 years on.

Bali bomber Ali Imron. Credit: DEBORAH CASSRELS

Bali bomber Ali Imron was hardwired for violent jihad from the tender age of 10.

His early radical family ties laid the foundation. But it was the indoctrination of jailed firebrand cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who was behind the bombings, that was the catalyst for Imron’s life as a terrorist.

Thirteen years on from the bombings, Imron, in an exclusive interview with The Weekend Australian at Jakarta’s police headquarters detention centre, describes his part in the carnage in which 202 people, including 88 Australians, were killed.

Recalling Bashir’s call to jihad through the voice of Mukhlas — the brother Imron idolised — Imron said he was instantly hooked. “I was a militant at 10 years old,” he says. “Mukhlas (Ali Gufron) was the most influential person in my life. I looked up to him. I did whatever he said. It started when I was at elementary school. I was 10.”

Imron says Mukhlas was teaching him how to found an ­Islamic state when he was studying at the Al Mukmin Islamic boarding school in Solo, central Java, under the guidance of Jemaah Islamiah leader Bashir.

“Mukhlas joined jihad in ­Afghanistan (against the Soviet ­invasion) in 1985. I was still at home in high school,’’ he says.

Imron eventually attended Bashir’s Al Mukmin, considered the Ivy League for JI recruits. The brothers later established their own radical school, Al Islam, in their home town of Lamongan, east Java.

Labelled “the repentant bomber’’, Imron is the last of the surviving bombers’ inner circle from the al-Qa’ida-linked JI network.

In 2002, the then 32-year-old drove a 1.1-tonne bomb close to Kuta’s Sari Club to wage violent jihad against innocent tourists. At his trial he admitted training the two suicide bombers who blew up the Sari and Paddy’s nightclubs.

His older brothers, mastermind Mukhlas, and Amrozi, and Imam Samudra were executed in 2008 for their parts in the bombings.

Serving a life sentence for co-operating with authorities and showing remorse, Imron helped to assemble and transport the bombs, An appeal to commute his sentence to 20 years is pending but the Indonesian government would consider Australia’s response.

Today, Imron has been brought to the office of Jakarta police chief and former commander of anti-terror squad Detachment 88, Tito Karnavian, also to participate in a documentary. Terrorism specialist Rohan Gunaratna, who heads the Singapore-based Internat­ional Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, is interviewing Imron about deradicalisation and his transformation from violent extremism.

Imron, sporting neatly pressed Western clothes for the occasion, is relaxed and talkative, keen to discuss his conversion of Afghan alumni. For five years he has published a blog, Ali Imron.com, under the auspices of the nat­ional counter-terrorism agency BNPT, on deradicalistaion. “Most of the Afghan alumni are not resuming violent operations,’’ he says. “They are quite happy with the treatment by police. But regarding the BNPT, their program is not really promising. BNPT ­attracts hatred from ­jihadis because the policy undermines Muslims. They (BNPT) make even more problems.’’

Karnavian admits it’s difficult to change the mindset of radicals “so we need to do it step by step’’.

Despite his remorse, a seeming commitment to “peaceful’’ jihad and collaboration with the BNPT, Imron appears disconcertingly smug. “I was the first Afghan alumni who prepared a big bomb operation,” he says. “No Indonesian terrorist had prepared as well as me. Our collection (of weapons and ammunition) was much bigger than other terrorists in Indonesia. No terrorist in Indonesia has carried a one-tonne bomb like me. I have been a militant since I was 10 years old.’’

The plan of October 12, 2002, involved detonating three separate bombs, including one outside the US consulate in Denpasar and a backpacker device carried by a suicide bomber to Paddy’s. Imron drove the largest close to the Sari Club in a Mitsubishi van bought for the occasion. “I myself drove the car until the Sari Club to the Bali bombing,” he says. “When I drove back to Denpasar I heard the car bomb explode loudly.’’

He reports being speechless as he drove back with fellow terrorist and project manager Idris, who was not convicted due to terrorism laws not applying at the time, on a motorbike. Idris was, however, jailed for the 2003 Marriott Hotel bombing and was released in 2009.

“I was shocked … when I heard the explosion, it was so big,” he says. “I could not smile, I could not cry, I was just silent. I was glad the operation was successful but I felt sad that Muslims were killed.’’

Asked how he felt when he saw the aftermath: shocking pictures of his victims, many with limbs blown off and burnt beyond recognition, he replies: “Many times I have apologised. Whether it was with me or without me, the Bali bomb would have still happened.

“The Bali bomb was a big mistake. I tried hard to stop the violent operations. I stated I was wrong and I regret it and I’ve apologised. I admit guilt. I’ve said that when I was arrested at the trial, until now. I’m sorry about the victims and the families of the victims.”

Imron admits his goal for an ­Islamic state has not diminished. “I was involved in some bomb operations and the biggest was in Bali,” he says. “I had to be involved for the victory of Islam and I will continue with this goal.”

Karnavian has asked Imron to write a book on Islamic State. Imron is strongly opposed to its ideology and, ironically, its brutal tactics. “I do not respect what IS is doing,” he says. “The ideology of ISIS is not representative of what a caliphate should be. The Islamic caliphate has already been declared by the Prophet Mohammad. It is not written anywhere in the Koran that you can carry out these atrocities, such as beheadings. Their bloody brutality makes me sick. Also, not all infidels are eligible to be killed. Jihad has its own procedure and ethics. ISIS is very dangerous for Indonesia.’’

Asked if he regarded the bombings as any less brutal than Islamic State tactics, he says: “There is a similarity and a difference in the level of violence. It’s different because ISIS is doing violence against Muslim brothers.’’