The execution of three Muslim militants convicted for their roles in the 2002 Bali bombings will be conducted “early in November,” a spokesman for the Indonesian attorney general’s office said on Friday.
The three – Imam Samudra, Ali Ghufron, alias Mukhlas and the “smiling assassin” Amrozi – have been on death row since 2003, when a Bali court sentenced them to death for their roles in the Oct 12, 2002, Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, mostly foreign visitors.
None of the three has shown any remorse for the attacks.
The plan to execute Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Ali Gufron will be conducted in early November 2008,” Jasman Panjaitan, spokesman for the attorney general’s office told a press conference.
Panjaitan did not specify an exact date or time for the execution, but said the execution can be carried out as the three men are running out of legal options. He also said that the three condemned militants have refused to file an appeal for clemency from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
“All legal avenues for death-row convicts Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra have ended and all legal requirements have been fulfilled,” Pandjaitan said.
Under Indonesian law a convict can ask for clemency from the president after legal appeals have been rejected by courts at all levels.
Indonesia’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday rejected arguments by the three men’s attorneys that executions by firing squad were cruel and inhumane. The court argued that the alternatives also were painful.
Imam Samudra, Amrozi, known also as the “smiling assassin” and Mukhlas are being held in a maximum-security jail on Nusakambangan island, off the southern coast of central Java.
The three were members of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a regional terrorist network responsible for several bombings across Indonesia.
These include simultaneous church bombings on Christmas Eve 2000, bombings on Bali in 2002 and 2005, the bombing of a JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta in 2004 and an attack on the Australian Embassy in 2005.
Executions in Indonesia are carried out by firing squad at undisclosed locations in the dead of night. Prisoners are normally notified at least 72 hours before they are shot.
