Bali bombers to be executed in early Nov
Indonesia will execute three Islamist militants convicted of the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people in early November, a government official said on Friday.
The men - Imam Samudra, Amrozi and Mukhlas, also known as Ali Ghufron - were sentenced to death in 2003 for their roles in the nightclub bombings on the holiday island.
The attacks by the Southeast Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) were intended to scare away foreigners as part of their drive to make Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, part of a larger Islamic caliphate.
"The Indonesian attorney-general office decided that the plan to execute Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Ali Gufron will be conducted in early November 2008," Jasman Pandjaitan, spokesman for the attorney general's office, told reporters.
The executions will take place on the island of Nusakambangan, where the three men are being held in a maximum security prison, officials said.
"I don't know what to say," Sumarno, a relative of Amrozi and Mukhlas, wrote in a telephone text message.
Metro TV station quoted Khozin, who is the brother of Amrozi and Mukhlas, saying that he regretted the decision to hasten the execution process.
Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra, who were convicted for playing key roles in the bombings, have refused to seek clemency from Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono after the Supreme Court rejected their final appeals, saying they want to die as martyrs.
In an interview late last year, the militants said they regretted only that some Muslims were killed in the blasts.
The two blasts on Bali's Kuta strip on Oct 12, 2002 - one at Paddy's Bar and the other at the Sari Club - killed 202 people, including 88 Australians and 38 Indonesian citizens, and dealt a severe blow to the island's tourist industry.
The Australian government on Friday advised its citizens to reconsider the need to travel to Indonesia, including the popular resort island, citing the "very high" threat of attacks.
"There have been recent arrests of high level terrorist operatives in Indonesia, but we assess terrorists are continuing to plan attacks," the government said in a warning on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.
In an earlier statement from their lawyers, the condemned men said their blood would "become the light for the faithful ones and burning hell fire for the infidels and hypocrites".
Instead of pushing Indonesia to cut ties with countries such as the United States and Australia, the attacks seem to have deepened them.
Agencies
(China Daily 10/25/2008 page11)
