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