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Bali bombers await firing squad

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Three Islamist militants convicted over the Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people awaited execution Saturday as Indonesia stood guard against a feared extremist backlash.

A source at the Nusakambangan island prison off southern Java said Amrozi, 47, his brother Mukhlas, 48, and attack strategist Imam Samudra, 38, had been placed in isolation and the execution order had been delivered.

"The letter ordering the execution was submitted last night at 9 p.m.," the source said. He did not say whether the letter gave a precise time for the executions.

Residents at Amrozi's and Mukhlas's home village of Tenggulun, East Java, woke Saturday to find an "H" had been painted on the ground overnight in a nearby field, where a helicopter from Nusakambangan might land with the bodies.

Local television also reported that checkpoints had been set up around Samudra's home town of Serang, and that a grave had been prepared.

Security forces have been placed on high alert across the mainly Muslim country as a precaution against an explosion of Islamist anger at the first executions to be carried out under Indonesia's anti-terror law.

Sensitive areas like foreign embassies, tourist spots, shopping malls and ports were under close guard. On the Hindu-majority resort island of Bali, 3,500 police were on the streets providing additional security, officials said.

Hand-written posters appeared overnight in the East Java city of Surabaya promising retaliation for the bombers' execution. "One word for Amrozi's killers: retribution," said one.

The 2002 bombings targeted nightspots packed with Western tourists, killing more than 160 foreigners including 88 Australians. The bombers said they were retaliation for U.S.-led aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq.

They were convicted and sentenced in 2003 under a new anti-terror law which was applied retroactively, leading anti-death penalty campaigners to question the legality of their executions.

All three have said they are eager to embrace "martyrdom," despite a series of failed appeals and legal challenges which have delayed their date with the firing squad.

All executions in Indonesia are carried out by firing squad, usually in the dead of night at undisclosed locations.

Defense lawyer Wirawan Adnan said he did not expect the government to follow the usual practice of giving the families three days' notice.

"I believe it's going to happen unannounced. It's just the way it is because they don't want the public to know and they're going to do it secretly," he said.

Officials have not confirmed a date for the executions other than "early November."

As police stepped up security around foreign embassies, the British ambassador was set to host a dinner for Prince Charles, who arrived in Jakarta to promote inter-faith dialogue and environmental issues.

The U.S. embassy issued a statement Friday warning citizens in Indonesia to "maintain a low profile" and advising that the consulate in Surabaya might have to close "on short notice."

Australia also warned against "demonstrations and acts of violence" in an update to its travel advisory last week.

The bombers, members of the Jemaah Islamiyah regional terror network, have expressed no remorse for the attacks.

In a string of media appearances and interviews they have been allowed to conduct from prison, they have warned of retribution and parroted al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden's world view of militant Islam at war against the West.

Mukhlas claims to have met bin Laden in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and named his son Osama.

In Tenggulun, the family of Mukhlas and Amrozi -- a former mechanic known as the "smiling assassin" for his childish courtroom antics -- remained defiant.

"If they die because they are standing up for the religion, they will be placed in paradise," elder brother Muhammad Chozin said.

Hordes of journalists and camera crews have descended on the village to wait out the executions.

© Wire reports

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

12 Comments
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What are they waiting for? Fire away!

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What are they waifing for? Easy answer, they are waiting to see how many more terrorists, angry militants etc...will come out of the wood work, they come out, catch some more terrorists, then fire away!

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How is killing them the answer, it's not. The answer is having them stay confined in a prison for the rest of their lives. Let them exist, not live or die.

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YangYong - in a country with the death penalty, letting them live is letting them off the hook. And its difficult in this case (no win situation) if they die, they become martyrs. If they live, they still have plenty of admirers. Scum.

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I protest death penalties but I think I'm going to stay out of the protest on this one...heh....

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Mukhlas claims to have met bin Laden in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and named his son Osama.

“If they die because they are standing up for the religion, they will be placed in paradise,” elder brother Muhammad Chozin said.

losers.

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They are caught in a trap. Narrow-mindedness in religion is an easy mental trap to fall into. Others, usually innocent like many of the people in Bali, often get dragged in and die as a result. In this case these three lazy religio-centrics have also brought their own deaths upon themselves.

Not much of it left, but is it now now time to grow up and ask for help from 'the One Power that is keeping us all alive' to see the truth and help their young followers not to fall into the same trap. For the sake of the future. Please. Not for the sake of some narrow-minded interpretation of a 'Holy Scripture'...

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It's too bad that the Bali Bombers couldn't find safe haven in San Francisco; they would have undoubtedly been given the keys to the city.

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I would get them lined up with the firing squad, all hyped up for death, get them to say their last "Allah Akbahs" and then reprieve them after the captain has got to "aim". Then the rest of their life in prison to rot.

To all of those crying out for them to be executed, being shot is exactly what these deluded, depraved murderers want. The last thing they want is to be tossed in solitary forever and forgotten about - which is what they should get

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Firing squad, firing squad you say? To hell with a firing squad, this man and his friends need to be burnt alive. No fan fare no hoopla, just toss them into the flames and hear them scream for a short bit.

They and all other religious fanatics deserve no less than death for their acts. But of course they should have their day in court as he did.

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JoeBigs - how much better than the bombers would we (or the Indonesian justice system) be if we adopted such barbaric practices? We are supposed to be standing above the criminal acts of terrorists, not stooping down to their level.

Religious fanatics - of any religion - are entitled to believe in their particular fairy story as far as I'm concerned, as long as they don't try to impose it on anyone else, by persuasion or by force.

Yes - these people are the lowest type of scum in my view, too, but we have to prove to the world that their efforts have been futile. Killing them is the opposite of that

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The bombers did not do anything wrong according to islamic law. As the mother of one of them points out: "I feel that killing infidels isn't a mistake because they don't pray." (http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/023324.php)

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