held in the police headquarters in Bali on Tuesday,
Ali Imron (left) explained how the bombs were assembled with the help of two "accomplices" who were actually policemen. -- AFP
BALI -- Wearing a vest filled with mock pipe bombs, a chief suspect in the Bali bombings methodically demonstrated to a crowd of reporters on Tuesday how his group assembled the devices that levelled two nightclubs and killed nearly 200 people last October.
Ali Imron -- dressed in a blue prison uniform -- then took part in a bizarre press conference at police headquarters in which he confessed to taking part in the bombings and insisted he was proud of his bomb-making skills, but apologised to the victims' families.
"My capabilities are something to be proud of, but...they were used for a wrong purpose," said Imron, who said he learned how to make bombs in Afghanistan and has admitted to helping plan the Oct 12 attack.
Since the blasts, police have arrested 29 suspects and blamed the attack on the Al-Qaeda linked terror group Jemaah Islamiah. But they have struggled to convince a sceptical public that a group of Indonesians planned and carried out the bombings, despite confessions from many of the suspects.
As a result, detectives have staged a series of re-enactments since December aimed at showing how the attack was executed. On Tuesday, the re-enactment focused on how the group put together the bomb that was carried into Paddy's nightclub and a much larger device placed inside a Mitsubishi minivan outside the packed Sari Club on the opposite side of the street.
Looking more like a talk show host, Ali Imron first showed how the group built the bomb placed in the minivan. He said it took eight days to assemble.
"I hope that there will be no more arguments about who really detonated the Bali bombs," he said.
"In my heart, I regret this. I want to apologise to the victims' families in Indonesia and to foreign families."
Investigators have estimated that the larger bomb weighed up to 100 kg. But on Tuesday, Imron claimed that it weighed over a tonne and consisted of a mix of potassium chlorate, sulphur and aluminum powder.
Later in the presentation, he strapped on a vest that featured eight mock pipe bombs with explosive chords connected to a detonator switch. It was the device that one of the terrorists was wearing when he allegedly blew himself up inside Paddy's -- the first recorded suicide bombing attack in Indonesia.
Indonesian authorities say that the Jemaah Islamiah group turned its attentions to Bali, after its plans to bomb Western interests in Singapore were thwarted.
Imron reiterated that they chose Bali because they thought it was a popular tourist spot for Americans.
"We picked Bali because we wanted to target America and its allies."
The first trials in the case are expected to open next month in Bali, police say. The defendants will likely face death sentences under newly-adopted anti-terrorism legislation.
Several suspects -- including the lead bomb-maker, a Malaysian identified as Ashari -- remain on the run. -- AP