Jakarta, Sep 25 (DPA) Indonesia’s Supreme Court has rejected the final appeals of two militants sentenced to death for bombing two nightclubs on the resort island of Bali in 2002, killing 202 people, local media reports said Tuesday.
“The panel of judges have rejected their request for a judicial review,” court spokesman Nurhadi said.
Nurhadi was quoted as saying by the state-run Antara news agency that a three-judge panel hearing a judicial review brought by the defence team of Ali Ghufron, known also as Muhklas, rejected the appeal on Aug 23. While another three-judge panel hearing a judicial review for Imam Samudra, rejected the appeal on Sep 19.
The same court last month also threw out the final appeal of Bali bomber, Amrozi, who has been dubbed as “the smiling bomber” for his broad grins during police interrogations.
Ghufron, Samudra and Amrozi, allegedly members of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a regional terrorist network responsible for several bombings across Indonesia in recent years, were sentenced to death by Bali’s Denpasar District Court in 2003.
Lawyers for the three militants had sought a judicial review for their case, arguing that the Constitutional Court in 2004 ruled that anti-terrorism laws could not be applied retrospectively.
But the Constitutional Court’s ruling neither squashed the convictions nor the death sentences handed down to the three men, or dozens of other militants who were convicted of playing roles in the attacks under the anti-terrorism law.
“There was no new evidence to back up their claims for a judicial review. Such evidence (Constitutional Court’s ruling) does not negate the Bali verdicts,” judge Djoko Sarwoko was quoted as saying.
With the rejection of their final appeals the three will now face execution by firing squad.
None of the bombers showed remorse over the attacks against Western tourists on Bali in October 2002, killing more than 150 foreigners, including 88 Australians.
The Bali bombing shook the Indonesian government out of its denial that it had a home-grown terrorist problem with militants inspired by Osama bin Laden. Within weeks after the attack – the worst at that time since the September 11 attacks in the US – Indonesia’s parliament passed tough anti-terror legislation that were later used to convict the bombers.
JI is blamed for several simultaneous church bombings across Indonesia on Christmas eve 2000, bombings on Bali in 2002 and 2005, the JW Marriott in Jakarta in 2004 and the entrance to the Australian embassy in 2005.
Indonesian police have arrested around 400 militants since 2002, severely damaging JI’s ability to operate.