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Prosecutors inspect execution site for Bali bombers

Posted July 24, 2008 08:21:00

Indonesian prosecutors have surveyed a site for the execution of three men convicted over the 2002 Bali bombings, in another indication that the execution could be nearing.

Attorney-General Hendarman Supandji had said earlier this week that the three Islamic militants could be executed by firing squad before the start of the Muslim fasting month in September after exhausting all legal options.

The three Islamic militants - Amrozi, his brother Mukhlas alias Ali Ghufron and Imam Samudra - have been on death row since 2003, when a Bali court sentenced them to death for their roles in the nightclub bombings that killed 202 people.

"I went there to check the execution location," Ida Bagus Wiswantanu, deputy Bali prosecutor for criminal cases, told reporters after visiting Nusakambangan prison, where the men are being held.

He refused to give the exact location and said he did not know the date of the execution.

"I don't know [the date], that's the part for higher officials. I only came to check the location," he said.

The three men lost their final appeal last week and have said they will not seek a presidential pardon.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, does not make public the timing and exact location of executions.

A deputy attorney-general said previously the death sentences could be carried out in Central Java.

The three are being held in the maximum-security jail on Nusakambangan island off Central Java, hundreds of kilometres from their families who live in East and West Java.

Some fear that executing the Bali bombers could fan anger and trigger potential violence in the predominantly Muslim nation of about 226 million people, but several analysts dismissed such fears, saying most Indonesians opposed their violent methods and respected the law.

- Reuters

Tags: crime, courts-and-trials, international-law, prisons-and-punishment, terrorism, indonesia, bali

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