Free Republic

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Stephen Smith has heightened speculation the Bali bombers will be executed overnight, issuing a special terror warning to school leavers. All signs are pointing to the execution early Australian time tomorrow of Islamic militants Amrozi, his brother Mukhlas and Imam Samudra. "The Government is particularly aware that in mid to late November and early December, a large number of Australian school graduates may well travel to Indonesia, particularly Bali for what has become known as schoolies week,'' Mr Smith said. "We ask those young graduates and their parents to very carefully bear in mind the travel advice...

Family members and Islamic fundamentalists are planning a joyous celebration for convicted Bali Bombers Amrozi and Muklas following their execution. The celebrations are to take place in the bombers home village of Tenggulun .

AN Indonesian Islamic cleric linked to the three extremists awaiting execution for the Bali bombings said today 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...

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Lawyers for three Islamic militants on death row for the 2002 Bali bombings lodged a legal challenge on Wednesday over Indonesia's method of executing convicts by firing squad, calling it inhumane. The three men -- Imam Samudra, Amrozi and Mukhlas, also known as Ali Gufron -- face a firing squad for their roles in the nightclub bombings on the island of Bali that killed 202 people. "We believe that execution by way of a gunfire is inhumane. It is for these reasons that the defense attorneys are applying to challenge the legislation," said lawyer Wirawan Adnan, adding...

INDONESIAN prosecutors have scouted possible sites for the impending executions of the three death row Bali bombers. Islamic militants Amrozi, his brother Mukhlas and Imam Samudra could be executed at any time over the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people including 88 Australians. Indonesia's Attorney-General Hendarman Supandji has said authorities want the trio put before a firing squad "as soon as possible" and before the start of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan in early September. Indonesia carries out executions by firing squad, but does not disclose the time or place.

BALI bomber Amrozi bin Nurhasyim can finally be executed after Indonesia's Supreme Court dismissed an appeal against his death sentence. The only obstacle to Amrozi facing a firing squad is the political will of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who knows he will face a backlash from his Muslim electorate over the execution. Dr Yudhoyono - who is more than midway through his five-year term as President and the first Indonesian leader to be directly elected - still has the option of granting clemency to Amrozi, his older brother Ali Ghufron and fellow death-row bomber Imam Samudra. However, that is a...

<p>When Bali bomber Amrozi was sentenced to death by firing squad this month, he turned around, smiled broadly and turned his two thumbs up in the air.</p> <p>"It's a martyr's death I am looking for," Amrozi said during his trial in Denpasar, following the October Bali nightclub blasts.</p>

The first convicted Bali bomber plans to appeal against his death sentence, despite his apparent relish at the prospect of facing the firing squad.Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, 41, who was convicted last week of terrorist acts in relation to last October's Bali bombs, has signed a document that enables his lawyers to appeal against the sentence handed down by a court in the Balinese capital, Denpasar.Amrozi, who has repeatedly expressed his willingness to die in the cause of Islam, greeted the court's ruling with a broad smile and a thumbs-up sign. His chief defence lawyer, Wirawan Adnan, said yesterday that they...

Amrozi, Indonesia's 'smiling bomber' has instructed lawyers to appeal against the death sentence he was given for his role in last year's Bali attacks. During his trial the 40-year-old mechanic declared that wanted to die a martyr. His chief defence lawyer, Wirawan Adnan said he would not argue that Amrozi was innocent, but that his client was denied due process. Any appeal must be lodged within seven days. Amrozi admitted buying the van that was later packed with explosives and detonated outside one of two nightclubs on the resort island in October 2002. The attack killed 202 people, many of...

Convicted Bali bomber Amrozi has instructed his lawyers to appeal against his death sentence, a process experts have tipped could take 12 months or more. His defence lawyer says Amrozi has signed a document authorising the team to launch the appeal. They have yet to do this. Amrozi's lawyer, Wirawan Adnan, has said he will use all avenues of appeal. He says the death penalty is an attempt to appease public opinion at the expense of justice. "It is trying to impress the local community and Australian opinion," he said. He says an appeal against the ruling will be launched...

BALI, Indonesia (AP) -- In the first verdict on last year's Bali bombings, an Indonesian court on Thursday convicted and sentenced to death Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, a key player in the attack that killed 202 people. Amrozi was found guilty of planning and helping execute the bombings. MORE

AMROZI has told his lawyers not to appeal against the death sentence he expects to receive on Thursday, claiming death will fulfil a boyhood dream - martyrdom. The best-known face of the Bali bombers has also said he was concerned Westerners might think he was scared if he appealed against his sentence. Amrozi's legal team has told judges at the Denpasar trial of their concern over his wish to waive his rights. Normally an appeal to the Supreme Court of Indonesia would be an automatic response to a sentence of death or life imprisonment. Under those circumstances, an appeal could...

AMROZI'S ex-lawyer described his former client as "the biggest liar" he had met and said he would likely face the firing squad for his role in the Bali bombings. The lawyer, Suyanto, who now represents Amrozi's repentant younger brother, Ali Imron, also revealed yesterday that contrary to the smiling bomber's claims, he was never tortured into confessing to police and only seemed interested in dying as a martyr. The two had a bitter falling-out on the eve of Amrozi being taken to trial in May, with each claiming to have sacked the other. And now Mr Suyanto claims all the...

AMERICANS or Jews may have added to the destruction in Bali by planting a mini-nuclear device in the car containing chemicals sent to the holiday island, confessed bomber Amrozi insisted yesterday. Amrozi said he mourned the devastation he helped cause last October but he laced his contrition with a bitter barb for non-Muslim victims, asking God to find their families better replacements. His regret, which was seen to fall well short of an apology, came amid a conspiratorial account of the deadly blasts. The claim of Western involvement came amid a convoluted confession in which he admitted dispatching 600kg of...

  Print this article |    Amrozi's smile slips as prosecutor calls for his headBy Wayne MillerDenpasar, Bali July 1 2003 Alleged Bali bomber Amrozi shifted uncomfortably in his swivel chair yesterday as the prosecutor in his trial called for the death sentence to be passed for his role in the October 12 attacks."We, the prosecution, request that, because of the evidence that has been brought before the court, that he has planned and caused an act of terrorism... you should bring down the punishment of the death penalty," Urip Tri Gunawan told the five judges, after a seven-hour summation of the...

Accused Bali bomber Amrozi bin Nurhasyim felt compelled to bomb the Kuta nightclub strip after Australians in Malaysia told him about the uncontrollable behaviour of foreigners there. Amrozi, who is facing the death sentence over charges of helping to plan and carry out the October 12 attack, told a court in Denpasar today that violence was the only way to get white people out of Bali. And he revealed that he had played a part in the fatal bombing of the Philippine Ambassador's residence in Jakarta in August 2000 as part of his battle against moral decay. In a lengthy...

SMILING bomber Amrozi has admitted he bought one tonne of chemicals before the October 12 Bali bombing. A relaxed Amrozi watched yesterday as two employees of a chemical store in Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city, testified that they sold him the potassium chlorate, sulphur and aluminium powder which was later turned into a deadly car bomb that exploded outside the Sari nightclub in Kuta. The explosion and fire killed 202 people, including 89 Australians, Amrozi told his Bali terrorism trial the testimony of both men was correct. Store employee Supomo said Amrozi had visited the store three times to buy...

BROTHER was pitted against brother in the Bali bombing trials yesterday, and the man who has won infamy as the smiling terrorist did not like what he heard. The seventh day of evidence in the trial of the plot's alleged co-planner Amrozi brought the surprise appearance of his younger sibling Ali Imron – a witness who was happy to detail the devastating attacks on two Kuta nightclubs, but just as keen to minimise his own involvement. Ali Imron, a veteran of five years' combat against the Russians in Afghanistan and as close as police have come to a rollover witness,...

THE alleged mastermind of the Bali bombings today admitted he was a killer. Imam Samudra, 33, spoke while being escorted back to his cell under guard after an interrogation session in Bali's capital Denpasar. In footage shown on the Channel Ten, that translated his remarks, Samudra said "Don't forget terrorist country Indonesia", and "I am killer, killer". Samudra's trial, expected to begin shortly, will be the second to get under way involving the 33 suspects being held over the bombings. A total of 202 people died in the blasts, including 88 Australians. The trial of Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, 40, began...

RIGID and with tension etched on his face, burns victim Peter Hughes yesterday searched the eyes of accused Bali bomber Amrozi. In them he saw fear and finally, after seven months of pain, felt relief and a sense of calm. He had come to Bali to watch the trial of the first of the men accused of almost killing him in the terrorist atrocities of October 12 last year. "I could see the fear in this guy's eyes . . . I became quite calm when I saw his eyes. I think he knew where he was going to be,"...