[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide----INDONESIA

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 9




INDONESIA----executions

Bali bombers executed


The 3 Bali bombers on death row have been executed by firing squad. Imam
Samudra and brothers Amrozi and Mukhlas were shot to death by separate
firing squads at 12.15am Indonesian time, an Indonesian government
spokesman has confirmed.

The executions come 6 years after the Kuta nightclub explosions that
killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

Family members of the bombers were informed of the execution by Ali Fauzi,
the brother of Mukhlas and Amrozi.

Ali Fauzi headed to the prison island of Nusakambangan by boat about
5.30am Sydney time to oversee the religious rights on the bodies.

He sent a text message to relatives in Arabic saying "they are with the
Almighty''.

In a statement on behalf of the family of Mukhlas and Amrozi, elder
brother Chozin said: "We hope the spirit of my brothers Amrozi and Ali
Ghufron (Mukhlas) will be takn by green birds to paradise."

The bullets will be removed from the bodies and autopsies performed before
the bodies are cleaned and wrapped in traditional Muslim cloth in
preparartion for burial.

The men's bodies are expected to be flown by helicopter today from the
prison island to their home towns.

Amrozi and Mukhlas are from the small village Tenggulun in East Java. Imam
Samudra comes from Serang in West Java.

The bombers' funerals are expected to be held within hours of their bodies
arriving home.

A Sydney woman who lost 2 sisters and 2 cousins in the 2002 Bali bombings
has tearfully told of her relief that the Islamic militants responsible
are dead.

"We're very happy ... we've waited a very long time for this and this is
our justice," Maria Kotronakis told CNN, struggling at times to speak.

"Finally the moment has come ... we are over the moon."

The presence of police has been stepped up across Indonesia amid threats
of attacks in Bali and in Jakarta shopping malls. Most terrorism analysts
believe it's unlikely there will be a major attack but agree there is a
risk of mob violence and clashes involving hardline supporters of the
trio.

The executions follow years of legal challenges to the death sentences,
which were handed down in 2003.

Right up until their final days, the killers showed no remorse and used
the media to claim to be warriors of Islam and predict a wave of attacks
against Westerners following their deaths.

Mukhlas was convicted of approving, inciting, financing and carrying out
the bombings, while his younger brother Amrozi bought the van and a ton of
chemicals used in the explosion, and attended planning sessions for the
attacks.

Samudra was the operational field commander for the bombings.

In the lead-up to the executions, survivors of the attacks and family
members of those lost had mixed feelings about the trio being sentenced to
death.

Some felt the bombers' deaths would bring closure for still-grieving
relatives, while others felt it would elevate Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam
Samudra to martyrdom.

David "Spike" Stewart, whose son Anthony died in the nightclub attacks,
has said he would be happy to pull the trigger on the firing squad rifle.

"I'd check the rifle to make sure I wasn't given the blank," he said
earlier this year.

Leanne Woodgate, from Port Melbourne, who was badly burnt with her sister
in Paddy's Bar, said: "I'll believe it when it actually happens. I hope
it's soon ... it will help because they ruined my life."

But Sydney man John Mavroudis, whose son David was one of six Coogee
Dolphins players killed, said he "couldn't care less" about the bombers.
"I don't give a damn about them really ... we just try and get on with our
lives."

(source: Sydney Morning Herald)

*****************

Indonesia 'executes' Bali bombers


3 Islamic militants condemned to death for the 2002 Bali bombings which
killed 202 people have been executed by firing squad, their lawyers say.

Imam Samudra, 38, Amrozi Nurhasyim, 47, and Ali Ghufron (Mukhlas), 48,
died from shots to the heart on the island prison of Nusakambangan, local
TV said.

They were found guilty of planning twin attacks on nightclubs at the
resort of Kuta, popular with Western tourists.

There has been no official confirmation of the executions.

The BBC's Lucy Williamson, in Cilacap, near the prison, says the 3 men
were taken from their cells and driven to the execution site at midnight
local time (1700 GMT).

The execution took place in the darkness surrounded by forest and a
handful of witnesses.

The deaths will not evoke much sympathy in Indonesia and many people
believe the executions should have been carried out much sooner, our
correspondent says.

Officials had said the 3 would be shot in early November but no date had
been announced in advance.

Security forces have been on high alert across the country amid fears of
reprisal attacks.

Members of radical groups have been gathering for days at the bombers'
home villages to pay their respects.

A brother of 2 of the bombers is at the prison to help prepare the bodies
before they are flown back to their home villages.

The dead men had apparently requested no autopsy and they had asked not to
be buried in state shrouds, but in material brought specially from their
family homes.

The bombings were blamed on the militant group Jemaah Islamiah, widely
regarded as a regional affiliate of the al-Qaeda network.

Since they were sentenced the bombers made several appeals for leniency.

However, they also said they were keen to be "martyrs" for their dream of
creating a South East Asian caliphate.

A last-minute appeal by relatives of the bombers was rejected by a Supreme
Court judge earlier this week.

(source: BBC News)