எனக்கு 72 கன்னிப்பெண்கள் கிடைப்பார்கள்- பாலி பயங்கரவாதி சந்தோஷம்

Last embrace? Families visit defiant Bali killers
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Convicted Bali bomber Amrozi with his daughter Khaulah and mother.
Photo: Reuters
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Olivia Rondonuwu
October 30, 2007


THE families of the three death row Bali bombers have paid what could be their last visit to their island prison before the trio face execution.

The so-called smiling assassin Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, senior Jemaah Islamiah figure Mukhlas (aka Ali Ghufron) and Imam Samudra are on death row for their roles in the 2002 Bali nightclub blasts that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

The three have exhausted all legal avenues for appeal and only now have the option to appeal for a presidential pardon, something they have said they will not do.

The families of the terrorists visited Batu Prison, on Nusakambangan Island, dubbed Indonesian's "Alcatraz", for four hours yesterday.

Their lawyer, Achmad Michdan, said the children of Amrozi and Samudra started to cry when they saw their fathers for the first time in more than a year.

"Mukhlas said the family don't need to be saddened by the execution because what they have done is something they truly believe is right," Mr Michdan said.

Amrozi was even more defiant. "People ask me, why am I smiling? I am happy because I will be united with 72 angels in heaven," said Amrozi in an interview.

"In the past I have killed many with my bombs. I have been tested by spending time in this prison, but if you make infidels angry you will (be) rewarded. And soon I will enjoy the fruit of my deeds, if I get executed, God willing."

The convicts' wives, draped in black burqas, brought small lunch boxes containing their husbands' favourite dishes, which they ate inside a prison meeting room.

Indonesian authorities are moving forward in their preparations for the executions, but Bali prosecutors are still awaiting the arrival of the original court document dismissing their final appeals before the execution plans are finalised.

"If the Denpasar District Court clerk has received the copy and informs us, we are ready to go in one or two days," a source at the Bali prosecutors office said.

The prosecutors and the clerk must inform the bombers of the death verdict and their family and ask if they want to use the option of the presidential pardon.

But according to Indonesia's new Attorney-General, Hendarman Supandji, the convicts and the families have one month to answer. He has said that even if the bombers say they do not want to apply for a pardon he will wait at least a month before the final all-clear in case they change their minds.

Amrozi and Mukhlas' brother, Khozin, told journalists yesterday that the family had not thought about whether they would ask for a presidential pardon.

The fate of the three death-row bombers is starkly different to that of Amrozi and Mukhlas' brother Ali Imron, who along with Mubarok, another convicted Bali bomber, feasted on kebabs at a Ramadan party hosted by the head of Indonesia anti-terror unit earlier this month.

Mubarok said he and Ali Imron had realised "what we did was wrong". The pair are serving life terms over the bombings.

AAP