[Ret10Echo]

Indonesian court gives go-ahead for Bali bombers' execution


Indonesia's Supreme Court has given the green light for the execution of the three Bali bombers after rejecting their last appeal, officials said Friday.

The court has sent a letter to the Bali prosecutor's office confirming that the rejection of the bombers' latest and third petition meant the appeals process was exhausted, Denpasar district court head Nyoman Gede Wirya said.

"The Supreme Court only acknowledges (the bombers') first appeal, which they've already rejected. The ball is now in the hands of the (Bali) prosecutor's office to carry out the sentence, the appeals process is over," he said.

Attorney General Hendarman Supandji was quoted by the state Antara news agency as saying the bombers had already refused to seek clemency from the president, clearing the way for them to face the firing squad.

"According to the law, the punishment can already be carried out," Supandji said.

Bali chief prosecutor Dewa Putu Alit Adnyana said he had not yet received the letter but had already appointed a team to oversee the executions, which will be held outside Bali.

"I've already prepared the team to deal with the execution. We're ready whenever," he said.

The three members of the Jemaah Islamiyah regional terror network -- Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Ali Ghufron -- were convicted in 2003 and are being held in an island prison off the south coast of Java.

The men remain defiantly unrepentant over their lead roles as plotters of the 2002 attack which killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists at bars and nightspots on Bali.

Rights group Amnesty International has come out in opposition to the bombers' execution, saying they were sentenced under a new anti-terror law that retrospectively applied the death penalty.

"Under international law... and the Indonesian Constitution, a person cannot be tried under legislation brought in after the incident took place," Amnesty said in a statement.

The president of neighbouring East Timor, Jose Ramos-Horta, said he opposed the execution of the bombers despite the extent of their crime.

"I respect the laws of other countries that might have the death sentence, but we do not have the death sentence," he said in an interview with AFP in Sydney, Australia.

The condemned men have said they will not seek presidential clemencies and claim they are looking forward to becoming martyrs.

But their lawyer said Thursday they would seek to challenge the death penalty itself through Indonesia's Constitutional Court.

"I'm shocked knowing that the Supreme Court took a decision that soon. It's never happened before," lawyer Fahmi Bachmid said.

"All of them have repeatedly said they will only ask pardon from God, not the president. This is their faith."