INDONESIA IS TOO SLOW IN EXECUTING BALI BOMBERS

By Andi Abdussalam

     Jakarta, July 21 (ANTARA) - The planned execution of Amrozi, Imam Samudera and Mukhlas  --Indonesia's notorious terrorists who bombed Bali and killed 202 people in October 2002-- were until Monday still uncertain.
     "We have not received any notification yet about the execution of Amrozi and friends," Bambang Winahyo, head of penitentiary affairs of the Central Java office of the Ministry of Legal and Human Rights Affairs, said in Semarang on Monday.
     The public at home and abroad are now waiting for the execution of Amrozi (45), Imam Samudera (39) and Mukhlas or Ali Ghufron (48) following a statement on Friday last week by Attorney General Hendarman Supandji that their death penalties could now be carried out.
     There was even a speculation last week in Australia -- 88 Australians were killed in the bombing-- that Amrozi and friends would be executed at the weekend.
     As quoted by an Australian media, David 'Spike' Stewart, a farther of a victim in the bombing, claimed last week he had been informed by the Australian Federal Police that the execution would be carried out at the weekend.
     According to Attorney General Supandji, convicted Bali bombers Amrozi and friends could already be executed as their third appeal for a judicial review of the death sentence had been rejected.
     "In juridical sense, Amrozi's death penalty can now be carried out," the attorney general told the Prosecutor's Office Journalists Forum (Forwaka) on Friday.
     The document on the rejection of the appeal had been sent to the district court in Denpasar, Bali, but Supandji claimed on Friday the Denpasar higher prosecutor's office had not yet received it.
     "The Denpasar district court has not yet passed on the document to the local higher prosecutor's office," he added.
     The Denpasar higher prosecutor's office was expected to report to the attorney general's office when it had received the document.
     "If the document is already in our hands, then the execution (of Amrozi) can juridically be carried out," Supandji said.
     The attorney general's office had once suggested to Amrozi and friends to apply for presidential pardon or clemency but the bombers rejected the idea.
     With the rejection of their third appeal and their refusal to ask for clemency, there were practically no longer any legal avenues the bombers could use to prevent their executions.
     It was reported that the location of their execution had also been decided, namely in Central Java. Yet, Amrozi and friends who are incarcerated in Nusa Kambangan jail, Cilacap district, Central Java, are to be executed by the Bali prosecutor office.
     According to Bambang Winahyo, if the death penalties for Amrozi and friends are to be carried out, the executor will be the head of Bali's Prosecutor's Office. In this regard, the Central Java office of the Ministry of Legal and Human Rights Affairs will be notified.
     "But we have yet to receive any notification about the plan to execute the Bali bombers," he said.
     Bambang made the remarks in response to the attorney general's statement that Amrozi and friends could now be executed after their third appeal for legal review had been rejected.
     Head of Denpasar (Bali)'s District Court, Nyoman Gde Wirya said earlier that their appeal for a legal review had been rejected. He said that the Supreme Court said its decision No.257/PAN/VII/2008 dated July 7, that a request for a legal appeal could be made only once.
     "Thus, their legal appeal is rejected," he said adding that the copy of the Supreme Court's decision has also been sent to the chief of the Denpasar higher prosecutor's office.
     Until last weekend however, the Bali higher prosecutor's office had not yet been certain when the execution was to be carried out.
     "Information on the planned executions of Amrozi and friends, should be given by the Attorney General's Office," spokesman of Bali's Higher Prosecutor's Office, IGNA Endrawan, said.
     But he said that his office had prepared an executors' team and was now waiting for instruction from the attorney general.
     In the meantime, Achmad Michdan, Amrozi's lawyer, said that Amrozi, Imamam Samudra and Mukhlas, were now ready to undergo execution provided it would be done in accordance with Islamic law.
     "In principle, it is no problem, as long as it has strong legal basis," Achmad Michdan, coordinator of the Muslim Lawyers' Team (TPM), said.
     The families of the death-row convicts have also been prepared for the execution. "Since the beginning, we have been ready for whatever decision is taken against Amrozi," Mashudi who represented Amrozi's family in Lamongan, East Java, said on Monday.
     He said that the families had  heard that the appeal filed by Amrozi, Imam Samudera and Ali Ghufron alias Mukhlas had also been rejected.
     "Family members in Lamongan, including Amrozi's mother, have no immediate plan to visit Amrozi in Nusakambangan jail," he said.

(T.A014/A/f001/a/f001) July 21, 2008