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Monday July 21, 6:24 PMIndonesia may execute Bali bombers before September
The three Islamic militants -- Amrozi, his brother Mukhlas alias Ali Ghufron, and Imam Samudra -- have been on death row since 2003, when a Bali court sentenced them to death for their roles in the nightclub bombings that killed 202 people. The three lost their final appeal last week and have said they will not seek a presidential pardon. "My hope is it (the executions) could be done before the fasting month, but if it falls in the fasting month, we will discuss it more specifically," Hendarman Supandji told reporters. "The problem is a person that wants to conduct his religious rituals. Can an execution be done while someone is conducting a religious ritual?" he said. The fasting month will begin early in September. Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, does not make public the timing and exact location of executions which, under Indonesian law, are conducted by firing squad. A deputy attorney-general said earlier these sentences could be carried out in Central Java. Supandji said the three men had exhausted legal appeal rights and his office held documents signed by them and their families waiving their right to a presidential pardon. Under Indonesian law, an execution can take place at any time once all legal avenues have been exhausted. A lawyer for the bombers said the men, who have repeatedly told the media they are ready to die as martyrs and will not seek clemency, could still decide to seek a pardon. Indonesian police said they had prepared the firing squad for the execution. "We are ready. Any time the attorney general gives us the time and place of the execution, we have prepared for it," national police spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira told Reuters. The three are being held in a maximum-security jail on Nusakambangan island off Central Java, hundreds of kilometres from their families who live in East and West Java. Some fear that executing the Bali bombers could exacerbate militant anger in the country of about 226 million people, but several analysts have dismissed such fears, saying most Indonesians are aware of supremacy of law. |
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