Birthplace of three Bali suspects

By Rachel Harvey
BBC, Jakarta

Tenggulun is a sleepy village a few miles inland from the coast of East Java.

Farm carts pulled by oxen compete for dominance of the road with a few motorbikes and the odd delivery van.

Amrozi's brother Ali Imron used to teach at Tenggulan's Islamic school

Until last November, few people had heard of this remote place. But then a man called Amrozi was arrested by police.

Amrozi has been accused of buying the explosives and the van used to make and transport the bombs which destroyed a bar and a night club in Bali last October.

More than 200 people died in the resulting explosions, mostly foreign tourists.

Amrozi's two brothers, Mukhlas and Ali Imron, were also arrested in separate raids by police.

Investigators believe that Mukhlas is a senior member of the radical Islamic group, Jemaah Islamiah, and probably headed the Bali operation.

Ali Imron is accused of helping to assemble the bombs.

Islamic education

So how did three brothers from Tenggulun end up in prison in Bali?

AMROZI Aged 40 Worked as a mechanic One of three brothers charged Click here for full profile

Part of the answer may lie in Indonesia's Islamic boarding schools, or Pesantren, which espouse a strict doctrine of hardline Islamic teaching.

Tenggulun has its own Pesantren in the centre of the village, where Ali Imron used to teach.

Concrete classrooms are built around the mosque, where students are required to pray five times a day.

Opposite the mosque is a wall which acts as a notice board. On it are pinned newspaper articles detailing Ali Imron's televised confession and pictures of the radical Islamic leader Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who has recently gone on trial for treason.

The eldest brother, Mukhlas, studied with Abu Bakar Ba'asyir in Indonesia and in Malaysia, where Amrozi later joined him.

Local people say the brothers changed after their time in Malaysia, becoming much more pious.

I think they should have given a warning first, but they believed they were carrying out a Jihad Mohamed Zacharia, headmaster of the Tenggulun pesantran

But the headmaster of the Tenggulun pesantran, Mohamed Zacharia, told me he had noticed nothing unusual about Mukhlas, Amrozi and Ali Imron.

"They were good, religious men", he said, "and I feel sorry for them".

But surely, I asked, if they were involved in the Bali attacks they must be held accountable for their actions.

Staring straight ahead, the headmaster replied, "They have said they thought what they were doing was right. I think they should have given a warning first, but they believed they were carrying out a Jihad."

"According to the law, what they did was wrong but, at the end of the day, it is God who will judge and punish them," he said.

Family ties

God is not alone, however, in having a say. A panel of specially selected judges has been appointed to oversee the trial of Amrozi.

He was the first person to be arrested after the Bali bombings - and is now the first to appear in court to answer the charges against him.

If he is found guilty, he could face execution by firing squad.

Amrozi's mother is struggling to cope without her sons

In a quiet side street of Tenggulun, Amrozi's mother can only wait for the verdict and hope.

Haji Tariyem is a tiny woman in her mid 60s, but she looks older.

She lives in a simple house with a few bare rooms.

Her husband, Nur Hasyim, lies on the concrete floor wrapped in a sarong with a blanket for a pillow.

He has been sick, on and off, for years - but has deteriorated recently.

Until last October, Amrozi lived at home, and would help look after his father. But now Amrozi is in prison and his mother is struggling to cope on her own.

Haji Tariyem seems utterly bewildered by all that has happened in the past few months.

She told me she did not have any idea that her sons were accused of involvement in the Bali bombings until the police arrived looking for Amrozi.

"I was shelling peanuts by the door when they came," she said. "They pushed their way into the house and starting asking lots of questions about Amrozi.

"Then they started looking all over the house for anything to do with him. They said they were looking for passports and documents."

Haji Tariyem talked almost without pause, as if she had not had anybody to chat to for some time.

She told me that Amrozi was a caring man, who would help bathe his sick father and take him to the mosque at the end of the street.

Mukhlas was more serious and scholarly, but they were all good boys, she said.

So how does she feel, I wondered, now that her good boys were awaiting trial, accused of causing the deaths of more than 200 people and facing a possible death sentence themselves?

"I don't understand it", Haji Tariyem told me, as the tears welled in her eyes.

"My sons should be looking after their sick father. I need them to come back home and help this family."