UPDATED ON:
Thursday, November 06, 2008
16:38 Mecca time, 13:38 GMT
News Asia-Pacific
Bali executions 'within hours'

Supporters of the three condemned bombers say they are "holy warriors" [AFP]

Al Jazeera has learnt that the three men sentenced to die for their role in the Bali bombings will be executed in the coming hours.

The twin bomb attacks on the island in October 2002 killed 202 people, many of them foreign tourists.

Barring a last minute change by the authorities, the executions will be carried out early on Friday morning at a prison island off the coast of Java.

The executions are a highly sensitive issue in Indonesia, with supporters of the men vowing to carry out revenge attacks if they are put to death.

Indonesian police have stepped up security across the country amid fears that the execution could spark fresh bombings.

On the island of Bali, police bomb squads have conducted thorough searches around the site of the bomb memorial and elsewhere in Kuta, one of the island's main tourist areas and scene of the attack.

On Thursday a group of about 100 protesters marched through the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, chanting slogans condemning the executions and praising the bombers as "holy warriors".

'Martyrs'

The three bombers will be executed by firing squad [GALLO/GETTY] 
Lawyers for the bombers say the families of the three men have written to the Indonesian president pleading for a delay in the executions.

However, they added the letter was not a request for clemency.

The three bombers - Amrozi, 47, his brother Mukhlas, 48, and Imam Samudra, 38 - have said they want to die to become "martyrs".

On the island of Java in the home village of Imam Samudra, friends and relatives of the man said to have been the field commander for the 2002 atttack are preparing to give him a hero's funeral.

"We are very proud of him, also my mother is proud," Jamaluddin, a brother of the condemned bomber, told Al Jazeera.

He said relatives of Imam Samudra are preparing for a hero's funeral as soon as the body will arrive.

Scars

The execution of the three men has been planned and then postponed on several occasions, triggering outcry from many of the relatives of victims of the bombings.

But for many of those still carrying the scars of the 2002 attacks, like 32-year-old Tumini, the carrying out of the death sentences will bring little comfort.

Tumini was badly burned in the attack and says that while the executions will not make the trauma of that night disappear, it may help dissuade others from carrying out attacks in the future.

"I'm grateful there will finally be justice," she told Al Jazeera.

"I hope that with the executions others, like the children of the bombers, will not do the same thing."

 Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
 
Topics in this article
Feedback Number of comments : 3
 
Jaquie
Canada
06/11/2008
Aljazeera: Please give us more insight here
It would be good if Aljazeeraran an in-depth perspective on this, because on the surface it makes no sense. Life-and-death protests are usually met with death sentences. Why, then, would anyone be trying to stop these executions I mean whether people are on their side or not? (After all, nobody blamed Saddam Hussein for killing the people who tried to kill him. The Americans would have done the same thing, right?) So this article needs more perspective.

Bigmel1981
Malaysia
06/11/2008
Bali executions within hours
Justice has been done. Now we can seek closure over this dark ghost that has been haunting us since 2002.

Harry Kuheim
Afghanistan
06/11/2008
executions
Burn them alive,they don't deserve anythig else.

 
ARTICLE TOOLS
 Email Article  Email article
 Print Article  Print article
 Send Feedback  Send feedback
 Share article  Share article
Aljazeera.net/english 2003 - 2010 ©
Designed & Developed by Aljazeera IT