Bali bomb suspects should not get death penalty if convicted,

Bali bomb suspects should not get death penalty if convicted,
Australian minister says

Associated Press
Melbourne, Australia

Australia's foreign minister on Friday called on Indonesia's
judicial system not invoke the death penalty if it convicts a
group of suspects in last year's deadly Bali bombings.

The Oct. 12 blasts in the resort island's nightclub district
killed 202 people, mainly foreign vacationers including 89
Australians.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer made it clear he was
speaking on his own behalf, and not for the Australian
government. In a radio interview, Downer said Indonesian Foreign
Minister Hassan Wirayuda had told him the alleged bombers would
face the firing squad if found guilty.

"I actually personally am not in favor of capital punishment.
Since I was a child I've never liked the idea of capital
punishment," Downer told Melbourne's 3AW. "I must say that to
you, no matter how egregious the crime, but I don't think I
resonate with public opinion there."

Australia has no death penalty and refuses to extradite
suspects to jurisdictions where they could be put to death,
unless it receives a statement that the penalty will not be
sought.

In Jakarta, state prosecutors working the case refused to say
whether they would demand the death sentences during trials
expected to start soon.

Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natelagawa
declined to comment except to say: "Irrespective of our
individual inclinations on the rights or otherwise of the death
penalty, the reality is that it is part of our law."

Separately, an Indonesian court on Thursday sentenced shop
owner Silvester Tendean to seven months' jail for selling the
explosive material used in the Bali nightclub bombings in October
last year.

Tendean was found guilty of possessing and selling 2.2 tons of
potassium chlorate to Amrozi, a key suspect in the bombings. Like
many Indonesians, Amrozi uses only one name.

Downer said Tendean would "not necessarily" have received a
harsher sentence in Australia.

"If they sold those chemicals unknowingly and unwittingly to
someone who subsequently went and used them for a chemical
purpose ... all sorts of things are sold to people who then might
use those things to commit criminal acts," Downer said.

"The people who sell them aren't necessarily culpable in the
subsequent offense."

Tendean is the first person to be tried in the Bali blasts.
Amrozi's trial is expected to begin within weeks in Bali's
capital, Denpasar.

Police have arrested 32 people in the Bali attacks. Several of
those detained have links with Jamaah Islamiyah, a regional
terror group believed linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda
organization.