Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Ali Ghufron	Ali Ghufron	Jemaah Islamiyah	Southeast Asia	Indonesian	In Jug	20051125	Link
		Sentenced to death for his part in the 2002 Bali bombings
	Ali Ghufron	Jemaah Islamiah	Southeast Asia			20030829

Southeast Asia

Indonesia: Suspected Leader Of Jemaah Islamiyah Arrested

2021-09-15

[DailyCaller] A man suspected of leading a holy warrior group with ties to al-Qaeda was arrested in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Monday, the News Agency that Dare Not be Named reported.

Abu Rusdan, 61, and three other suspected members of the holy warrior group Jemaah Islamiyah were arrested near Indonesia’s capital city, according to police spokesperson Ahmad Ramadhan, the AP reported. Jemaah Islamiyah is a designated terror group in the U.S. and was accused of several bombings in Indonesia including a kaboom at a hotel in Bali in 2002 that killed more than 200 people.

"He is currently known to be active among the unlawful Jemaah Islamiyah network’s leadership," Ramadhan told the AP. He added that the arrests were part of a national law enforcement effort targeting the group.

Rusdan is a convicted holy warrior and Indonesian officials consider him as a leader within Jemaah Islamiyah, according to the AP. He served a three-year prison sentence for his involvement in hiding Ali Ghufron, the holy warrior behind the Bali attacks.

Rusdan traveled across the country to speak at events and deliver sermons after he was released from prison in 2006, the AP reported.

The group is also suspected of carrying out attacks in the Philippines and recruiting and training new members in Indonesia, according to the AP. Densus 88, Indonesia’s counterterrorism police force, has arrested 53 suspected members of Jemaah Islamiyah across the country.

Link

Southeast Asia

Inside the making of the Bali bombs

2012-02-12

Long look at the bomb-builder of the Bali terrorist attack. Worth noting the connections to Abbottabad and his proximity to bin Laden for a time.

JAKARTA, Indonesia: An Indonesian militant charged in the 2002 Bali terrorist attacks told interrogators he spent weeks holed up in a rented house, painstakingly building a half-ton bomb using household items including a rice ladle, a grocer's scale and plastic bags.

A transcript of the Umar Patek's interrogation obtained by The Associated Press offers extraordinary detail of the Bali plot just days before Patek -- a radical once Southeast Asia's most-wanted bomb-making suspect -- goes on trial in Jakarta for his alleged role in the nightclub attack that killed 202 people.

Patek, known as "Demolition Man" for his expertise with explosives, says he and other conspirators stashed the 1,540-pound (700-kilogram) bomb in four filing cabinets, loaded them in a Mitsubishi L300 van along with a TNT vest bomb. The van was detonated outside two nightclubs on Bali's famous Kuta beach on Oct. 12, 2002. Most of those killed were foreign tourists.

Although homemade bombs are easily assembled by militants all over the world, making such powerful devices as those used in Bali -- and using such unsophisticated equipment -- would have taken enormous amount of care and expertise.

Patek, 45, goes on trial Monday following a nine-year flight from justice that took him from Indonesia to the Philippines to Pakistan, reportedly in pursuit of more terrorism opportunities. He was finally caught in January 2011 in the same Pakistani town where US Navy Seals would kill Osama Bin Laden just a few months later.

Boy howdy, what a coincidence. Wonder if he and Binny shared the community pool?

Patek was hiding out in a second-floor room of a house in Abbottabad, a $1 million bounty on his head, when Pakistani security forces, acting on a tip from the CIA, burst in. After a firefight that left Patek wounded, he was captured and extradited to Indonesia.

Should have been extradited to Diego Garcia...

His capture was seen as a yardstick of the successes that Asian security forces, with US help, have achieved against Jemaah Islamiyah, the Al-Qaeda-linked regional terror group blamed for the Bali bombings and several other attacks in Indonesia. All its other leaders have been executed, killed by security forces, or are on death row.

Patek is charged with premeditated murder, hiding information about terrorism, illegal possession of explosives and conspiracy to commit terrorism, and now faces a possible death sentence as well. The indictment also accuses Patek of providing explosives for a string of Christmas Eve attacks on churches in 2000 that claimed 19 lives.

Interviews with intelligence officials in Indonesia and the Philippines, the interrogation report and other documents obtained by the AP reveal the peripatetic life Patek led after the Bali attacks as he ranged widely and freely, often without passing through immigration checks, while allegedly passing along his bomb-making skills to other terrorists.

Patek, whose real name is Hisyam bin Alizein, is the son of a goat meat trader. He went to computer school and learned English before being recruited into Jemaah Islamiyah by Dulmatin, a fellow militant who was gunned down by Indonesian police in March 2010.

After his arrest, Patek told his interrogators that he learned to make bombs during a 1991-1994 stint at a militant academy in Pakistan's Sadda province, and later in Turkhom, Afghanistan, where bomb-making courses ranged "from basic to very difficult."

He said he was living in Solo, Indonesia, when mastermind Imam Samudra approached him to make a bomb in Bali. He agreed and flew to Denpasar, Bali's capital, and was taken to a rented house.

"In one room of the house, I began to mix the explosive ingredients, which were already in the rental house," he said. "For about three weeks, I made the explosive ingredients into black powder with the assistance of Sawad (a co-conspirator). For tools used in the mixing of the ingredients, I used (a) scale that will usually be used in a food store, rice ladle and plastic bags as containers."

Dulmatin separately worked on the electronic circuits, which were later attached as detonators to the bombs packed into the filing cabinets.

"When we were lifting the filing cabinets into the white L300 van, an explosion occurred which was caused by friction of the filing cabinet with the floor of the room, because the floor still had some leftover black powder on it," he said.

Patek left Bali a few days before the attacks were carried out.

Afterward, officials said, Patek and Dulmatin went to the Philippines and allegedly joined forces with the local extremist group Abu Sayyaf, spending the next several years training militants and plotting attacks, including against US troops in the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Imam Samudra and two other masterminds of the Bali attacks -- brothers Amrozi Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron -- were caught, tried and executed.

Patek returned to Indonesia in June 2009, living in various rented houses in Jakarta. He held several meetings with radicals and aspiring militants at home and held assault rifle and bomb-making training sessions at a beach in Banten near Jakarta.

But Patek's heart was set on going to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taleban or other extremist groups, said Ansyaad Mbai, Indonesia's anti-terrorism chief. He told the AP that Patek intended to continue his fight in a more defined battleground with a larger radical group, and refused Dulmatin's offer to become an instructor in a new militant camp in Indonesia's Aceh province.

"He wanted to fight with a larger extremist group, and Afghanistan was the ideal battleground for him," Mbai said.

But to reach Afghanistan, he would have to go to Pakistan first. A police investigator said that a 37-year-old Pakistani in Indonesia, Nadeem Akhtar, helped Patek get a Pakistani visa from his embassy in Jakarta.

Why not just print up a fresh one?

After Patek arrived in Lahore, a courier with links to Al-Qaeda then brought him to Abbottabad, possibly to meet with Bin Laden.

Mbai did not rule out the possibility that Patek went to Abbottabad to not only gain a foothold into Afghanistan but also to obtain funds for setting up a militant training camp in Jolo in southern Philippines. But before he could make much progress or meet Bin Laden, he was caught.

Patek's trial not only seeks justice for the Bali bombings, but also is a coup for intelligence officials. He is believed to have valuable information about Al-Qaeda and its links with Jemaah Islamiyah, which was founded by Indonesian exiles in Malaysia in the early 1990s.

The Bali bombing remains JI's most spectacular attack. Though there have been several others since, but none as deadly. Analysts credit a crackdown that has netted more than 700 militants since 2000, including the death of several key leaders in police action.

Link

Southeast Asia

Jemaah Islamiyah moving from deeds to words?

2009-01-02

At a small, backstreet bookstore here, the young staff members, wearing matching green skull caps and sporting adolescent chin beards, stock books with titles like "Waiting for the Destruction of Israel" and "Principles of Jihad." They work quietly, listening to the voice of a firebrand Islamic preacher playing on the store's sound system, his sermon peppered with outbursts of machine-gun fire. Another young man, a customer, flips through a pile of DVDs that chronicle the conflicts in Chechnya, Afghanistan and Sudan. And in the back, slogans like "Support Your Local Mujahedeen" and "Taliban All-Stars" are scrawled across T-shirts, stickers and pins.

The bookstore, called Arofah, is a short walk from Pesantren Al-Mukmin, an Islamic boarding school closely associated with Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian terrorist network linked to Al Qaeda that seeks to establish an Islamic state and has been implicated in most of the major terrorist bombings in Indonesia. Some of the most notorious extremists in Indonesia have graduated from the school, including Mukhlas, also known as Ali Ghufron, one of the three men put to death in November for their roles in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people. Imam Samudra and Mukhlas's younger brother Amrozi were also executed.

During their five years in prison, Mukhlas and Samudra wrote more than a dozen books. These books are now being picked up by several Solo-area publishers and will soon make their way to booksellers like Arofah. This consortium of publishers, many of whom openly support the ideological goals of the now-banned Jemaah Islamiyah, has developed over the past decade - spurred on by the fall of Suharto, the late authoritarian ruler of Indonesia, and the new freedoms democracy has provided.

The dissemination of jihadi thought, which includes topics as diverse as support for Islamic Shariah law and calls for violent action against non-Muslims, is troubling to counterterrorism officials. But analysts say what might be more troubling is what this small but expanding group of publishers indicates about how interconnected, and resilient, the Jemaah Islamiyah movement is in Indonesia.

There are at least a dozen loosely connected publishers in the Solo area. Although they are separate businesses often in competition with each other, they share editors, designers, printers, translators, distributors and even authors.

Mukhlas, the former operations chief for Jemaah Islamiyah, wrote nearly 10 books in the last five years that are waiting to be published, including an autobiography that is said to paint the Bali bombings as a justifiable act of vengeance for the ill-treatment of Muslims around the world and a book on the hidden meanings of dreams.

Samudra wrote a sequel to his 2005 defense of the Bali bombings, "Me Against the Terrorists." The new book addresses questions from the hundreds of readers about the first book and will be titled "They Are the Terrorists" - referring to Western leaders. He also wrote a book about human rights, one of his lawyers said.

"Most of the publishers come from Solo, but we hope to sell the books in both large, commercial bookstores as well as smaller ones across Indonesia," said the lawyer, Achmad Michdan, who has written introductions for several of the books.

Although the circle of Solo publishers is expanding, radical books generally do not sell that well in Indonesia. Samudra's first book, considered a breakout success for its type, sold only about 10,000 copies. Publishers can afford to print such books by piggybacking on another, broader trend: the ballooning demand for mainstream Islamic texts. Books that explore the Islamic lifestyle - addressing issues like how to be a good Muslim woman or the Islamic take on the end of the world and life after death - are the biggest sellers here now. One popular Muslim-themed love story sold hundreds of thousands of copies and was recently made into a movie.

Like their mainstream counterparts, the Solo-area publishers say they are only businessmen and are not necessarily trying to spread any particular ideology. "Although political books don't make much money, there is a growing market for them," said Tri Asmoro, the owner of Arofah bookstore, who also owns a publishing company of the same name and its imprint, Media Islamika, which is devoted to jihadi texts and carries the slogan "Join the Caravan of Martyrs."

Bambang Sukirno, who owns Aqwam Group and its imprint Jazera, which got its start with Samudra's first book, said he was only addressing a topical subject, just like "journalists and others around the world are doing." "We see that this 'terrorism' phenomenon, whether you like it or not, has seized space in this world," he said.

A report by the International Crisis Group earlier this year suggests that the rise of radical publishers could indicate that Jemaah Islamiyah is beginning to wage jihad through the printed page rather than violent acts. "Some publishers may be playing a more positive than negative role, directing members into above-ground activities and enabling them to promote a jihadi message without engaging in violence," the report says. But the message, once put into book form, often enters the classroom and Islamic study circles, ultimately helping to recruit young people into Jemaah Islamiyah's ranks, according to the Indonesian authorities.

The government, however, faces a quandary. As a secular government piloting the largest Muslim population in the world, it must balance its campaign to stamp out terrorist activities with its simultaneous effort to nurture a developing democracy and freedom of expression.

Sukirno, like the other publishers in the Solo area, is well aware of the government's concerns and is not worried that his company might be shut down because of the kinds of books he publishes.

"Democracy in Indonesia is thriving, and if the government ever tried to interfere in the publishing industry, well, that would be dangerous," he said. "Interference would just give birth to waves of resistance and undermine democracy. Books are a reflection of a civilized nation."

Link

Southeast Asia

Indonesia: Bali bombers asked Islamists to join them, claims group

2008-11-11

(AKI) - A radical Islamic group, Majelis Mujahideen Indonesia has claimed that one of the Bali bombers executed at the weekend had asked the group to be collaborate on the 2002 bomb attacks. "Amrozi had asked us to collaborate on the Bali bomb attacks," said Muhammad Bachroni, a spokesman for MMI, in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI).

He was referring to Amrozi Nurhasyim, one of the three Bali bombers executed on Sunday. "We said no, because our way of fighting for (Islamic) Sharia law does not include violence," said Bachroni.

Imam Samudra, Amrozi Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron (Mukhlas) were executed by firing squad at the island prison of Nusakambangan off southern Java on Sunday, government officials said. The three, who belonged to Islamic militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, were found guilty of planning the twin attacks on nightclubs at the resort of Kuta on the island of Bali in October 2002. A total of 202 people died in the attacks, most of them foreigners.

Responding to the executions on Sunday, Bachroni said they were rushed and unfair. "The attack in Bali was carried out with a small nuclear bomb made in Israel. Amrozi and the others were co-opted in participating in the attack organised by the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency)," Bachroni told AKI. "There needed to be more time to discover the other perpetrators," told Bachroni to AKI.

MMI is an Islamist organisation considered close to JI which aims at turning Indonesia into an Islamic state. Until last July, MMI was led by Abu Bakar Bashir, a radical cleric considered the spiritual leader of JI. Bashir has since formed another group called Jemaah Anshori Tauhid or defender of believing in one and only God teaching.

JI is widely considered south-east Asia's most dangerous terrorist organisation and was believed to be behind the bloodiest attacks in Indonesia. Intelligence agencies claim Bashir is the spiritual head of Jemaah Islamiyah and has links with Al-Qaeda.

In March 2005, Bashir was found guilty of conspiracy over the 2002 attacks. He was sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment. In December 2006, Bashir's conviction was overturned by Indonesia's Supreme Court.

Link

Southeast Asia

Bali bombers bodies buried

2008-11-09

Three Islamic ~~terrorists~~ militants executed for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people were buried Sunday before hundreds of emotional supporters. Some hard-liners shouted "God is great!" and called the men holy warriors. Fearing attacks in retaliation for the executions, Indonesia increased security at tourist resorts, shopping malls and office buildings. Several embassies, including from the U.S. and Australia, urged their citizens to keep a low profile, saying they could be targeted.

Imam Samudra, 38, and brothers Amrozi Nurhasyim, 47, and Ali Ghufron, 48, were taken before firing squads in a field near their high-security prison on Nusakambangan island just after midnight, Jasman Panjaitan, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, told reporters. The men died instantly, he said, adding that their eyes were left uncovered at their request.

The three men never expressed remorse, saying the blasts were meant to punish the U.S. and its Western allies for alleged atrocities in Afghanistan and elsewhere. They even taunted family members of victims 88 of whom were Australian at their trials five years ago.

The executions, which were sensitive for both political and security reasons, ended years of uncertainty about their fate. Repeated postponements have frustrated survivors and relatives of victims, and enabled the bombers to rally supporters from behind bars by calling for revenge attacks in interviews aired on local television stations or published in newspapers and books.

The bombers' bodies were taken by helicopters to Tenggulun and Serang, their hometowns in east and west Java respectively, where thousands of sympathizers and onlookers turned out Sunday for their funeral processions. Dozens of radicals scuffled briefly with police in Tenggulun, home of the two brothers, Nurhasyim and Ghufron, but there were no serious disturbances.

Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, led the prayers for the brothers, one of their final requests. Former ~~terrorists~~ militants and police allege Bashir headed Jemaah Islamiyah in the early 2000s. But while he was found guilty of giving his blessing to the Bali attacks, his conviction was overturned after he spent more than three years in jail. Bashir said Saturday the bombers had "sacrificed their lives" for "the struggle of Islam."

Though the three Bali bombers said they were happy to die as martyrs, their lawyers fought for years to stop their executions, arguing they were convicted retroactively on anti-terrorism laws. They also opposed death by firing squad, saying their clients preferred beheadings because they were more "humane."

Link

Southeast Asia

Brother warns of "massacre" if Bali bombers executed

2008-11-07

Seems like they were being executed because there was a massacre.
(AKI) -- The brother of one of the Bali bombers sentenced to death for Indonesia's worst terrorist attack has threatened a "massacre" if the executions are carried out. Jaafar Shodiq, brother of Amrozi, one of the three convicted bombers, issued the ultimatum, according to the press agency Detikcom. "If the execution is carried out there will be a massacre," said Jaafar Shodiq, according to the site. He gave the government the warning to stop the execution "if it wants to maintain security".
Once a government allows its actions to be constrained by bomb-waving pinheads it has no security to maintain.
The warning was revealed as Islamic extremists rallied in the Indonesian capital to protest against the imminent execution of the three bombers found guilty of the twin bomb attacks carried out in October 2002 on the island of Bali. A total of 202 people died in the attacks, most of them foreigners.

Around 100 chanting militants descended on the offices of the national human rights body as the bombers' lawyers met officials inside to demand access for the families. The militants condemned the executions, and praised bombers Amrozi, his brother Mukhlas and Imam Samudra, calling them holy warriors.

International rights group, Human Rights Watch, recently asked the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to commute the death sentence of the bombers who face imminent execution and instead sentence them to life in prison.

The Bali bomb attacks were the worst terrorist act in Indonesian history. The twin attacks which occurred on 12 October 2002 in the tourist district of Kuta on the island of Bali killed 202 people and injured more than 200 others. The three men were tried and sentenced under terrorism laws introduced after the bombings.

"The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Indonesia is party, prohibits in article 15 the retroactive application of penal legislation....the basis for the death sentence in these cases--should not have been applied to Amrozi, Ghufron, and Imam Samudra," said the letter.

With Imam Samudra and Ali Ghufron, Amrozi is a member of Jemaah Islamiyah, an Islamist terrorist group with suspected links to Al-Qaeda, that is committed to uniting south-east Asia under a Muslim caliphate.

Abu Rusdan, leader of JI from 2002 to 2004, said the group had no interest in the executions. "The execution is the responsibility of JI but the entire Islamic community," Abu Rusdan said. Abu Rusdan was found guilty of hiding one of the men who carried out the Bali bombings and sentenced to three and a half years in jail. "There is no room for violence in Islam. Islam wants prosperity for everyone," he said. "Violent acts are not justified in Islam."

Link

Southeast Asia

Bali bombers should not be executed, says rights group

2008-10-29

(AKI) - A human rights group has asked the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to commute the death sentence of the three Bali bombers who face imminent execution and instead sentence them to life in prison. The Bali bomb attacks were the worst terrorist act in Indonesian history. The twin attacks which occurred on 12 October 2002 in the tourist district of Kuta on the island of Bali killed 202 people and injured more than 200 others.

"Your Excellency, we understand that the three men have refused to ask for clemency, yet we urge you in the strongest terms to use your powers to halt the executions of Amrozi bin H. Nurhasyim, Ali Ghufron and Imam Samudra," said the US-based Human Rights Watch, in a letter to Yudhoyono. "Rather than allow the executions to go forward, you should commute the men's sentences to life in prison."

The three men were tried and sentenced under terrorism laws introduced after the bombings.

"The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Indonesia is party, prohibits in article 15 the retroactive application of penal legislation....the basis for the death sentence in these cases--should not have been applied to Amrozi, Ghufron, and Imam Samudra," said the letter.

The three bombers - Mukhlas, Amrozi and Imam Samudra - convicted over the attacks have been sentenced to death by firing squad.

"Human Rights Watch deplores acts of terrorism and recognises the government's duty to bring to justice persons responsible for such serious crimes," the organisation said. "We condemn the 2002 Bali bombings as horrific and inexcusable attacks, and believe that the perpetrators should be held to account. We strongly believe, however, that the death penalty is not an appropriate sanction, particularly in this instance."

Link

Southeast Asia

Cleric blames CIA for Bali bombing

2008-10-17

If an islamic holey man sez it, it must be true.

An Indonesian Islamic cleric linked to the three extremists awaiting execution for the Bali bombings said the 2002 attack which killed more than 200 people was the work of the CIA.

Abu Bakar Bashir told AFP the US intelligence agency had fired a nuclear missile at the Bali tourist strip from a ship off the coast. "It has been mentioned as being a micro-nuclear bomb, not a regular bomb... The bomb was made by the CIA, it could be no one else," he said in his house at the Al-Mukmin Islamic boarding school on Indonesia's Java island.

He said the attack was a conspiracy between "America, Australia and the Jews" and the three convicted bombers - Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Ali Ghufron - had been framed.

"The bomb Amrozi set off, the first one, at most it shattered glass and didn't wound people, or at most wounded them a little," he said, sitting on the floor and wearing the white robes and scull-cap of a religious man. Amrozi had been "used by the CIA in coordination with America, Australia and the Jews. The police and the prosecutors aren't brave enough to prove it."

The coordinated October 12, 2002, bomb attacks ripped through packed nightspots at the holiday island's main tourist strip and killed 202 people, mostly foreign visitors including 88 Australians.

Radical Islamist preacher Bashir, aged about 70, served almost 26 months for conspiracy over the attacks before being cleared and released.

Link

Southeast Asia

Indonesia marks sixth Bali bombing anniversary

2008-10-13

Survivors, relatives of the victims and government officials on Sunday marked the sixth anniversary of the deadly bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.

The attack, blamed on the Jemaah Islamiyah network, claimed the lives of 202 people from 22 countries. Australia, which for years saw Bali as its playground, had the most victims, with 88. Australian ambassador Bill Farmer read a statement from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd during a ceremony attended by some 100 people at the Australian consulate on the resort island. "The 12 October 2002 tragedy shocked Australia. For those who lost loved ones, life will never be the same," Rudd said in a statement.

"We think of the families and friends of the victims. Our thoughts and sympathies will always be with them," he added. Tearful mourners took turns placing bouquets of flowers at a wooden cross memorial built by victims' families at the Australian consulate in the Balinese capital Denpasar. Rudd praised Indonesia for the crackdown it carried out in the wake of the worst terror attack in the region.

"We can be proud that the partnership between Indonesia and Australia is the strongest it has ever been," he said. Farmer added that it was hoped terrorists would continue to be brought to justice. The anniversary was held amid a promise from the Indonesian government that the three key bombers - Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Ali Ghufron - would be executed by the end of the year.

Indonesian prosecutors had earlier put plans on hold to execute the bombers before the month of Ramazan on September, citing bureaucratic delays.

Link

Down Under

Bali bombers call on militia boss Eurico Guterres to testify

2008-09-11

* Bombers want proof death by firing squad hurts
* Attempting to delay their executions
* They argue they should die 'humanely'

LAWYERS for the three death-row Bali bombers will call former East Timor militia leader Eurico Guterres to testify that death by firing squad would constitute torture.

Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, Ali Ghufron, also known as Mukhlas, and Imam Samudra are expected to be put to death some time after Idul Fitri, the early-October conclusion to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, The Australian reports.

But they are trying to delay their deaths with a constitutional court appeal that argues they should be allowed to die by beheading, lethal injection or some other, more humane means.

The trio was responsible for the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings in which 202 people, including 88 Australians, were killed.

They want Guterres, the only person to have been convicted over the 1999 Indonesian-led rampage in East Timor in which thousands died, to describe how painful various shooting deaths he witnessed were.

"We want him to demonstrate that being shot dead constitutes torture, because he's been to war and he's seen that people who are shot do not die straight away," lawyer Wirawan Adnan said.

Guterres was released from jail last year when his conviction for crimes against humanity, based on his leadership of pro-Indonesian militias in East Timor, was overturned.

The bombers' lawyers are arguing that even though members of a firing squad aim directly at the condemned person's heart, there can still be a delay before they are dead.

Link

Southeast Asia

Death-row Bali bombers challenge legality of firing squads

2008-08-07

The three convicted Bali bombers filed a petition against firing squads in Indonesia's constitutional court Wednesday in a last-ditch bid to stave off their executions, lawyers said.

The members of the Islamist Jemaah Islamiyah network -- Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Ali Ghufron -- are awaiting execution over the 2002 bombings on the resort island that killed more than 200 people, most of them foreign tourists.

After exhausting their last appeals, they have now asked the constitutional court to rule on whether firing squads were a form of torture, their lawyers said. Lawyer Wirawan Adnan said the men wanted to be decapitated instead. "Execution by shooting won't kill the convicts instantly. The law states that if the first shot on the heart doesn't work, they must be shot again to the head," he said. "The three have requested execution by decapitation."

Executions in Indonesia are by firing squad, usually carried out at night in isolated and undisclosed locations. The prisoner is notified at least 72 hours in advance.

The bombers have shown no regret for the attacks and say they are looking forward to dying as "martyrs".

Indonesian officials have already said the constitutional court's deliberations will not delay the executions, unless it rules quickly in favour of the bombers. "The executions are one problem and the decision of the constitutional court is another problem -- there is no relationship," Human Rights Minister Andi Mattalatta told journalists.

Attorney general's office spokesman Bonaventura Nainggolan confirmed that planning for the executions was proceeding. "It has nothing to do with the execution process. The constitutional challenge they filed won't have any effect on the planned execution," he said.

"It will only have an effect if the constitutional court issues a decision quickly in their favour."

But defence lawyer Adnan said the executions must be put on hold until the court rules on the petition. "Otherwise the execution will be illegitimate," he said.

Officials have said they hope to execute the bombers before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in September, and have already chosen men to form the firing squads.

Link

Southeast Asia

Security tight around Bali bombers

2008-08-01

INDONESIA has tightened security at an island prison where the three Bali bombers are being held ahead of their immiment execution, fearing a reprisal attack, a senior official said today.

"We don't want a bomb to explode in any corner of this very big prison complex,'' Nusakambangan island prison chief Bambang Winahyo said. "All things or visitors entering this prison must be checked extra carefully. We don't want to leave any single loophole for any security disturbances or bomb blasts."

The three members of the Jemaah Islamiyah regional terror network - Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Ali Ghufron - were convicted in 2003 for their roles in the 2002 Bali bombings on the island of Bali which killed more than 200 people. Justice officials have said they will be executed by firing squad on the island before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan around September, after their last appeal was thrown out of court earlier in July.

Link

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