Indonesia to execute Bali bombers in Nov: official

Indonesia will execute the three Islamists convicted for the 2002 Bali bombings in early November, an official said Friday.


"The execution will be carried out in early November... The decision is final," attorney general's office spokesman Jasman Panjaitan said without providing an exact date.

Extremists Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra face a firing squad over the attacks on packed nightspots on the resort island of Bali which killed 202 people, mainly foreign holidaymakers.

They were sentenced to death in 2003 but their execution has been repeatedly delayed by a string of failed appeals and religious considerations.

"All legal avenues for death-row convicts Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra have ended and all legal requirements have been fulfilled," Panjaitan said.

The bombers' last petition, against the use of the firing squad, was thrown out of the constitutional court earlier this week.



Most executions in Indonesia are carried out by firing squad at undisclosed locations in the dead of night. Prisoners are normally notified at least 72 hours before they are shot.

The bombers have expressed no regret for killing "infidels" and claim they are eager to die as "martyrs" for their radical view of Islam.

Paraded before the media at the island prison in southern Java earlier this month, they vowed their deaths would be avenged.

"If I'm executed there'll be retribution. It's not necessary for me to tell you what the retribution will be," said Amrozi, known as the "smiling assassin" for his jovial court appearances.

Lawyers for the bombers condemned the government for failing to give an execution date.

"The announcement today is not firm or clear about the execution date, it could be anywhere between November 1 and November 10. We think they're just playing for time," lawyer Achmad Cholid told AFP.

The government has been criticised for backtracking on previous statements about the timing of the execution, which could raise anger among the tiny minority of Islamist radicals in the mainly moderate Muslim country.

Elite anti-terror police have stepped up security near Amrozi and Mukhlas' village in East Java province in anticipation of the execution, according to the Detikcom news website.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the executions had to be "done at the right moment" after careful consideration, Detikcom reported.

Meanwhile police are pursuing other extremists from the Jemaah Islamiyah regional terror network which allegedly carried out the Bali bombings of 2002 and 2005, and attacks against the Australian embassy and Marriott hotel.

Investigations into five terrorists arrested in Jakarta on Tuesday have led investigators to believe extremist networks are now more determined to destabilise the local economy than kill Westerners, police said.

The cell rounded up Tuesday was planning to blow up Jakarta's main fuel depot and was connected to Abdullah Sunata, who was jailed in 2006 for protecting alleged Bali bomb mastermind Noordin Mohammad Top, they said.

"Their target has always been non-believers," police Brigadier General Bambang Hendarto Danuri told reporters.

"But we have seen now that they are also targeting anti-terror agencies and those with links to the economy, not only the interests of the US and its allies."

Malaysian extremist Noordin, who wants to create an Islamic caliphate across much of Southeast Asia, is still on the run with a one-billion-rupiah (102,000-dollar) price tag on his head.