Bali bomber loses on appeal

2004-06-18 13:46

Jakarta - Indonesia's Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by Bali bombings mastermind Imam Samudra against his conviction and death sentence, a judge was quoted as saying on Friday.

"We have made a decision on his appeal case. We rejected that appeal," German Hudiarto was quoted as saying by Indo Pos newspaper.

If the report is confirmed, Samudra would be the second key bomber on death row to have his appeal rejected by the supreme court, after Amrozi.

Amrozi is seeking a judicial review of his conviction by a different panel of supreme court judges in a final attempt to escape a firing squad,

Samudra's lawyer Wirawan Adnan said he had not been notified of the court's ruling but was not surprised.

It does not matter

"Rejected or not, it does not matter. What remains to be seen is whether the government has the guts to execute him," Adnan said.

Investigators believe Samudra is a leading member of the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant group, which staged the attack on two crowded nightclubs to avenge Western oppression of Muslims worldwide.

The bombings on October 12, 2002, killed 202 people - mostly Western holidaymakers.

Closer to God

The Afghanistan-trained Samudra had once said he would welcome death as bringing him closer to God.

Samudra, 34, attended planning meetings, selected the blast targets in Bali and assigned tasks to the bombers as part of a holy war against the United States and its allies, prosecutors said.

A third bomber called Mukhlas is also on death row and has also said he will appeal.

A fourth key bomber, Ali Imron, escaped with a life sentence after expressing remorse. He is a brother of Mukhlas and Amrozi.

- AFP