Indonesia Prepares for Bali Bombers Executions

(Jakarta, Indonesia) Authorities want to preclude any disruption of the planned executions while they seem to accommodate every conceivable delay.

Indonesia's most feared prison on Nusakambangan island, West Java, is raising security measures to prepare for the execution of the three convicted terrorist responsible for the first Bali bombing in 2002.

The terrorists -- Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra -- are expected to be executed before Ramadhan starts on September 1.

Earlier this week, authorities in the island banned fishermen from fishing around the island.

"The restriction is necessary to anticipate possible intrusions on the island," West Java correctional facility division head Bambang Winahyo said, as quoted by Antara newswire
on Thursday.

Bambang said the fishermen usually set up tents around the island, sometimes camping there overnight. He said terrorists could pose as fishermen and take advantage of the situation.

Ship traffic is also being monitored in the vicinity of the island.

Meanwhile, lawyers for the three condemned men today appealed for a stay in the executions. They claim that state executions carried out at night by firing squads in secret location amounts to torture. The three would rather have their heads chopped off.

Lawyer Adnan Wirawan claimed that once the application -- to be presented in less than two weeks -- was lodged, the Attorney-General's office must delay the executions."The question now is why is the Attorney-General's office in a hurry to execute them?" Mr Wirawan said. "Are they under the pressure of the Australian community to execute the three bombers right away?"

Spokesman for the Attorney-General's office, Bonaventura Nainggolan, said any application would not hamper the executions.

"Let them do that," he said. "The preparation leading up to the execution goes on; the decision by the constitutional court is not retroactive. If the preparation (for the executions) is completed, the execution will be carried out."

Interestingly, judges earlier this year rejected the execution-method-is-torture argument in the case of the Bali Nine heroin case.

Also: The Jawa Report