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Bali bombers execution not in near future

25 March 2008, JAKARTA - The Indonesian Attorney Generals Office (AGO) said Tuesday the execution of three convicted Bali bombers must wait their decision whether or not they ask a presidential pardon. "They have said earlier they will never ask for a presidential pardon. But if they will, then we must wait," AGO spokesman Bonaventura Nainggolan told reporters here.

The trio - Imam Samudera, Amrozi and his older brother Ali Ghufron - have been convicted by the Denpasar District Court of plotting and carrying out the October 2002 bombings at two nightclubs that killed 202 people on Bali island and sentenced to death. The calls for their execution have been mounting since their lawyers withdrew request for a judicial review, which, according to the Indonesian law, becomes the final appeal.

But inmates in death row can ask a presidential pardon, and when accepted, it will commute the capital punishment to life imprisonment. The Bali bombers have defiantly dismissed such an effort, arguing that seeking a pardon would imply that they plead guilty. Nainggolan said the inmates were given 30 days to decide. The execution by the firing squad may take place after that, but no clear answer is given.