WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials said on Tuesday the government slapped sanctions against a key suspect in the 2002 Bali bombing and two other senior members of the southeast Asian terrorist network Jemaah Islamiah.
Umar Patek, who is accused of planning attacks on a nightclub in Bali, will be blacklisted by the United States along with Abdul Rahim Ba'asyir and Muhammad Jibril Abdul Rahman.
The sanctions are designed to cut off the suspects' ability to access the international finance system by prohibiting U.S. transactions with the three men.
They have "demonstrated their commitment to violence," said David Cohen, Treasury Department undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, in a statement.
Al Qaeda is believed to have supported some of Jemaah Islamiah's (JI) attacks, including the Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people.
Patek, a bombmaker for JI, was recently extradited from Pakistan to Indonesia and is one of the few Indonesian militants who is expected to explain the connections between Islamist militant groups in Asia.
(Reporting by Rachelle Younglai; editing by Neil Stempleman and Jeffrey Benkoe)
