Three Bali bombers refuse to seek clemency
Three Bali bombers refuse to seek clemency
Agencies, Jakarta
Three militants on death row for their roles in the 2002 Bali
bombings have refused to request presidential pardons, a
prosecutor said on Thursday, as public calls mounted for their
immediate execution.
Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, Imam Samudra and Ali Ghufron alias
Mukhlas were sentenced to death by firing squad in August 2003
for their parts in the nightclub bombings the year before that
killed 202 people and dealt tourism on the resort island a heavy
blow.
"They all refused to seek grace. They said that grace should
only be sought from Allah, and not from an earthly institution,"
said Djoko Susilo, the head of the Cilacap Prosecutor's Office in
Central Java.
The three turned down the chance to ask for a pardon when they
met with prosecutors and judges on Wednesday in their cells on
the prison island of Nusakambangan in Central Java, said I Wayan
Suwilah, a prosecutor who took part.
The three have said they carried out the attacks on two
nightclubs packed with foreign tourists to avenge the deaths of
Muslims in Israel and Afghanistan.
"You should be proud because someone is brave enough to resist
America," a smiling Amrozi said, according to another prosecutor.
Public calls for a rapid execution of the three men have
mounted since a second series of attacks on Bali earlier this
month killed 23 people, including three suicide bombers.
A crowd of more than 1,000 last week ripped down the large
steel gates that guarded Kerobokan, the Bali prison that had
housed the three convicted bombers until they were moved to the
more secure facility on Nusakambangan.
After receiving an answer from the convicted bombers, Susilo
said the legal team would now visit the families of the three to
ask whether they planned to seek presidential pardons on their
behalf.
Indonesian law says the convicts cannot be executed until all
legal avenues have been exhausted.
The law also says that families of prisoners on death row and
their lawyers can seek pardons on their behalf.
The attorney general's spokesman, Mashudi Ridwan, said judges
would ask the families and lawyers if they plan to do so before
setting an execution date.
On Tuesday, Bali Police chief Insp. Gen. Made Mangku Pastika
warned that speeding up the execution of the three could provoke
a militant backlash and trigger more attacks.
Some political analysts have said their execution could make
them martyrs in the eyes of Indonesia's militant fringe and a
tool for recruitment.
The three have been on death row for around two years. They
are part of some 30 militants convicted over the 2002 blasts.
Those convicted in the Bali bombings were identified as
members of the al-Qaida-linked regional terror group Jamaah
Islamiyah, which is also suspected of involvement in the Oct. 1
attacks.