Family resigned to fate of Amrozi

Family resigned to fate of Amrozi

Residents in this small village of Tenggulun in Lamongan regency,
East Java province, were glued to their TV sets on Monday as
fellow villager Amrozi went on trial before the eyes of the world
for the Bali bombings.

Some circulated a petition appealing to the court on Bali
island to spare Amrozi's life if he is found guilty.

But relatives said he must face the consequences of his
action.

"The whole family are resigned. Amrozi must be responsible for
his actions. It's the chance he's got to take," said brother
Khozin, who leads an Islamic boarding school, Al Islam, at
Tenggulun.

Amrozi's mother Tariyem, who lives with her sickly husband
Nurhasyim, watched the trial for a moment at a neighbor's house
because there is no television set at home. Nurhasyim is too ill
to watch.

"We have surrendered to our fate," was all Tariyem said.

Exams at Al Islam were brought forward half an hour to allow
students to watch the trial, Khozin said.

Amrozi, a mechanic in the village, may face a firing squad if
convicted of the bombings last October 12 which killed 202 people
from 21 countries.

Two of his brothers Ali Ghufron alias Mukhlas and Ali Imron
are also detained as suspects in the Bali bombing.

Mukhlas is said to be a regional leader of the Jamaah
Islamiyah (JI) regional terror group, replacing elusive terror
suspect Hambali.

Investigators have said JI, which is thought linked to al-
Qaeda, staged the blasts and a string of others as part of a
campaign to topple governments and establish a Southeast Asian
Islamic state.

Amrozi, 40, the first suspect to be arrested, was dubbed the
"laughing bomber" for a lighthearted appearance before the media
last November.

Now he is "prepared for the worst. We told him that the
maximum sentence is death," his chief lawyer, Wirawan Adnan, told
reporters in Bali. -- AFP