Indonesia tells bombers' families to 'get ready'
<cite class="auth">AFP - Saturday, November 8
</cite>TENGGULUN, Indonesia (AFP) - - The families of the Indonesian Islamists on death row for the 2002 Bali bombings which killed more than 200 people have been told to "get ready" for the executions, officials said Friday.
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</noscript>In the latest indication that the men will soon face firing squads, prosecutors and police visited the family of brothers Amrozi, 47, and Mukhlas, 48, in this east Java village and warned them to prepare for bad news. "We were just here to tell the family to get ready for when the executions take place," chief district prosecutor Irnensif said after speaking to the family for about 30 minutes. He did not specify when the three bombers -- Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra, 38 -- would be put to death with bullets to their hearts. Samudra's family in the west Java town of Serang received a visit from prosecutors late Thursday, a brother said. "He's not guilty, he hasn't done anything wrong. He's been slandered. I'm not willing for him to be murdered," Samudra's mother, Embay Badriyah, told reporters. Indonesian officials have said only that the executions will take place in "early November." The bombers were sentenced in 2003 for the attack on packed nightspots that killed mostly foreign tourists, including 88 Australians, in what they said was revenge for US military action in Afghanistan and Iraq. Their executions have been delayed by a string of failed appeals and religious considerations. Amrozi's brother Ali Fauzi said the family was ready.
"The prosecutor told us to get ready and prepare ourselves in case the execution takes place," he said. "And they told us not to wait for a letter informing us of the executions because the Bali court has no obligation to send one. We told the prosecutor we're ready, there's no problem." Samudra's brother Khairul Anwar said his family was "trying to relax in anticipation." Indonesia usually executes convicts by firing squad in undisclosed locations in the dead of night. The prisoners are told at least three days in advance. Helicopters have been prepared to take the convicts' bodies from the high-security prison on Nusakambangan island off southern Java to their villages. Authorities are afraid that an overland journey will turn into a procession for jihadist radicals bent on "holy war" with the West. Security has been strengthened across the mainly Muslim archipelago of 234 million people amid fears of a backlash from a tiny minority of fanatics. In other signs the execution hour is drawing close, visitors to Nusakambangan were being asked to surrender their mobile phones and hardline cleric Abu Bakar Bashir announced a special prayer meeting in Jakarta. Lawyers for the bombers dismissed speculation they had asked for clemency in a letter from their families to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. A spokesman for the president said no letter had been received. The families have complained that they have been denied permission to visit the men for a last time, fueling accusation the government is abusing the bombers' human rights. Rights campaigners have said the men should not be executed because they were sentenced under a new anti-terror law which was enforced retroactively. Police meanwhile manned roadblocks near Amrozi's village, where handfuls of radical sympathisers have gathered for the past four days. "We understand that many people are heading there and we want to make sure nothing bad happens like clashes," local police officer Sunaryo Putro said. Police are also investigating bomb threats received this week against the US and Australian embassies, and an Internet letter purportedly penned by the bombers threatening Yudhoyono's life. The bombers' lawyers deny their clients wrote the letter. The condemned men have said they are eager to die as "martyrs."
<cite class="auth">AFP - Saturday, November 8
</cite>TENGGULUN, Indonesia (AFP) - - The families of the Indonesian Islamists on death row for the 2002 Bali bombings which killed more than 200 people have been told to "get ready" for the executions, officials said Friday.
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"The prosecutor told us to get ready and prepare ourselves in case the execution takes place," he said. "And they told us not to wait for a letter informing us of the executions because the Bali court has no obligation to send one. We told the prosecutor we're ready, there's no problem." Samudra's brother Khairul Anwar said his family was "trying to relax in anticipation." Indonesia usually executes convicts by firing squad in undisclosed locations in the dead of night. The prisoners are told at least three days in advance. Helicopters have been prepared to take the convicts' bodies from the high-security prison on Nusakambangan island off southern Java to their villages. Authorities are afraid that an overland journey will turn into a procession for jihadist radicals bent on "holy war" with the West. Security has been strengthened across the mainly Muslim archipelago of 234 million people amid fears of a backlash from a tiny minority of fanatics. In other signs the execution hour is drawing close, visitors to Nusakambangan were being asked to surrender their mobile phones and hardline cleric Abu Bakar Bashir announced a special prayer meeting in Jakarta. Lawyers for the bombers dismissed speculation they had asked for clemency in a letter from their families to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. A spokesman for the president said no letter had been received. The families have complained that they have been denied permission to visit the men for a last time, fueling accusation the government is abusing the bombers' human rights. Rights campaigners have said the men should not be executed because they were sentenced under a new anti-terror law which was enforced retroactively. Police meanwhile manned roadblocks near Amrozi's village, where handfuls of radical sympathisers have gathered for the past four days. "We understand that many people are heading there and we want to make sure nothing bad happens like clashes," local police officer Sunaryo Putro said. Police are also investigating bomb threats received this week against the US and Australian embassies, and an Internet letter purportedly penned by the bombers threatening Yudhoyono's life. The bombers' lawyers deny their clients wrote the letter. The condemned men have said they are eager to die as "martyrs."
