 THIRTY young, glassy-eyed men, all grimly focused, jog at pace two abreast, military-style, through the narrow streets of Solo in central Java. Whether they are a new crop of Muslim terrorists is impossible to say, but the al-Mukmin school they attend has produced a long list of some of the most sinister names known to Australia and Southeast Asia. Out of this school came the 2002 Bali bombers Mukhlas, Amrozi and Samudra, and the 2005 Bali suicide bombers. Also from there was bomb-maker Fathur Rahman al-Ghozi, who wreaked terror in Indonesia, Singapore and The Philippines, and Mubarok, who drove a truck into the Australian embassy in Jakarta in 2004. Nur Said, aka Nur Hasbi, also studied here. It is widely believed he was one of two bombers in Friday's attack on Jakarta's J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels. If it was Nur Said, he -- like the rest of the alumni -- was taught the fundamentals of jihad terror at this school by its co-founder and the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah, Abu Bakar Bashir, in the mid-1990s. In this, Bashir was ably assisted by Southeast Asia's most wanted man, Noordin Top, who recruited terrorists from this backstreet Islamic boarding school. Top is believed to have given Friday's bombers their final instructions. It is remarkable this school survives, given that its history is so written in blood. Guards at the school, in the suburb of Ngruki, were reluctant to let The Australian inside its gates. We were able to observe the show of force they gave as they ran through the streets in the midday heat, chanting "Allahu Akbar" -- God is great -- in an intimidating statement of force. The graphic on the students' shirts depicts a rifle with a bayonet and a yellow flag. It may not be coincidence that in Indonesia, a yellow flag is used to indicate that someone has passed away. The word sapala on the T-shirts is an acronym that roughly translates as "Islamic School Nature Lovers", and the word kamufisa refers to a mujaheddin cadre. Indonesian police arrived at the school on Monday to investigate Nur Said's associations and the school. After initial denials he had been a student there, the school's deputy director, Ustadz Wahyudin, yesterday reportedly confirmed he had been in Bashir's classes of '94 and '95. Bashir lives at the school but was yesterday on a preaching tour in east Java. Alexander Downer, who as foreign minister confronted a series of terror events, told The Australian: "What can you do with someone who has Abu Bakar Bashir as their earthly hero and would like to get the hell out of this world and into paradise? "People still don't understand how these people schooled in the madrassas see great virtue in martyrdom. The worst that can happen to them is that they feel a bit of pain, or none at all. They're excited about blasting themselves into paradise. It's very hard to counter that." Mr Downer said Australian aid programs aimed at modernising the schools and teaching moderation were 10-15 years away from showing a beneficial effect. Source: The Australian
 November 09, 2008
THREE Bali bombers have been executed on an Indonesian island for their lead roles in the 2002 nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
The family of Mukhlas and his younger brother Amrozi said the bombers had been executed along with Imam Samudra just after midnight local time (4am AEDT) on Nusakambangan Island, in Central Java, where they had been jailed.
“Our family has received news of the execution ... May our brothers, God willing, be invited by green birds to heaven now,” Mohammad Chozin, a brother of Mukhlas and Amrozi, said in their home village of Tenggulun.
“We're now handling the preparations to bring the bodies back, which may take two hours,” he said outside an Islamic boarding school in the east Java village, as supporters shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greater).
Indonesia's Attorney General's Office later confirmed the executions had taken place.
“At 12.15am, the convicts ... were executed by shooting and followed up with an autopsy,” spokesman Jasman Pandjaitan said.
“They have been stated as dead. At this moment the bodies are being washed by the family.”
Attorney General Hendarman Supanji will hold a press conference in Jakarta at 11am local time (3pm AEDT).
The bombers were simultaneously shot through the heart by crack Indonesian troops assembled to carry out the task.
They were executed in an orchard some 6km from their prison on Nusakambangan Island, Indonesia's TV One reported.
A source at the prison said they shouted “Allahu Akbar” as they were escorted out of their isolation cells by paramilitary police shortly before their executions.
Australians expressed relief that the men were finally dead, six years after they brought carnage to Bali by sending suicide bombers to attack the Sari Club and nearby Paddy's Bar on October 12, 2002.
“... we've waited a very long time for this and this is our justice,” Sydney woman Maria Kotronakis, who lost two sisters and two cousins, told CNN, struggling at times to speak.
“Finally the moment has come ... we are over the moon.”
Survivor Peter Hughes, of Perth, who suffered horrific burns in the bombings, said the three militants had paid the highest price for mass murder, but their executions did not bring him any joy.
“These guys went to set about mass murder and paid the highest penalty,” he told CNN.
“It doesn't feel good but they did do the crime and they've paid for it.”
The bombers' bodies will soon be flown by helicopter to their home villages for burial within 24 hours, in accordance with Muslim custom.
In Tenggulun, sobbing mourners are converging on the home of Amrozi and Mukhlas' mother.
Hardline cleric Abu Bakar Bashir – the co-founder of Jemaah Islamiah, the group blamed for the Bali bombings – praised the bombers as “holy warriors” during a visit to the village on Saturday.
Security forces are on high alert across the mainly Muslim country, after the bombers urged supporters to carry out revenge attacks if their executions went ahead.
Australian authorities have advised Australians to reconsider the need to travel to Indonesia.
The 2002 Bali attacks were the bloodiest in a sustained period of al-Qaeda-inspired jihadist violence in the world's most populous Muslim country. Source: The Australian
By Marion Carroll in Denpasar | November 08, 2008
THE younger brother of Bali bombers Amrozi and Mukhlas has been ordered to wait in a room at Nusakambangan prison to receive his dead brothers bodies within hours, online news site detik.com has reported.
Ali Fauzi has been denied a final visit with the Islamic militants ahead of their executions at the prison island off Central Java, lawyer Mahendradatta said.
A lawyer for the bombers, Achmad Michdan, told media today it was a "possibility" his clients would be executed Saturday night or early Sunday morning.
Prosecutors said they may make an announcement about the executions later Saturday night, but did not elaborate.
With the executions of Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra imminent, authorities ordered Fauzi to wait in a room at their island prison to receive their bodies and make sure they were being handled in accordance with Islamic sharia law, Mahendradatta said.
"He (Fauzi) was told to wait in a room to see the bodies, to make sure the process complies with Islamic sharia law," Mahendradatta was quoted as saying by detik.com.
"Why is the family only allowed to see the dead bodies? Once again, they are not to see them in living condition. So it is not a family meeting as meant within the law."
Mahendradatta speculated that Fauzi was denied permission to see his brothers alive because of fears he may find that they had been mistreated.
"(Possibly) because they are worried there is something Amrozi and his friends may say that will cause their operation (executions) to be aborted. For instance if Amrozi is tortured or executed beforehand," he said.
Amid fears that the trio's supporters would seek to avenge their executions, police were reportedly worried that the bombers would order Fauzi to launch an attack if they allowed a final visit.
"Who can guarantee if he (Amrozi) won't give a message to the family to fight, we are afraid there will be mass radicalisation," a police source told local newspaper Radar Banyumas.
Protests by Islamic militants against the executions have been slowly building as the execution process has dragged on.
The Australian government today warned of reprisal attacks, with Foreign Minister Stephen Smith saying the government was receiving new "credible evidence" of the threat of terrorist attacks.
Among the warnings he singled out in a travel advisory were that "the executions could prompt a strong reaction from their supporters such as demonstrations, acts of violence and reprisal attacks".
Tourists should be especially careful around beaches, bars, malls and other venues associated with tourists, the advice says.
However, Mr Smith said the travel advice to Indonesia had not changed from the second highest level of "reconsider your need to travel".
Some 1500 anti-riot police have been deployed to Amrozi and Mukhlas' home town of Lamongan, East Java, in anticipation of possible unrest following the executions, detik.com reported. Source: The Australian
 Tom Allard in Tenggulun, East Java
November 8, 2008
FAMILY and supporters are planning an elaborate "celebration" for Amrozi and Mukhlas after their deaths, including the slaughter of a goat for a feast and a procession of their bodies through their home village of Tenggulun.
A prosecutor yesterday arrived in the small village to convey the last wishes of the Bali bombers to their families and to say their executions were imminent.
The brothers Amrozi and Mukhlas and their co-conspirator, Imam Samudra, are to be executed for their role in murdering 202 people, including 88 Australians, in Bali in 2002.
It was their wish that their bodies be wrapped in the traditional Muslim cloth and buried in Tenggulun next to their father, Nurhasyim, said their older brother, Chozin, after meeting the prosecutor, Irnensif.
More details of the funeral arrangements were revealed by another brother, Ali Fauzi, and Said Sungkar, who is on a committee overseeing the funeral.
Sungkar, the younger brother of Abdullah Sungkar, who co-founded the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah, said the funeral was an occasion "to celebrate the victory of Islam", and 500 of his supporters would act as an honour guard for the bodies.
"I'm positive about the execution of Amrozi and friends because they have done jihad in God's way," Sungkar said. "The TNI [Indonesian military] should have learnt from them how to make bombs."
Ali Fauzi said that his older brothers wanted their bodies to be taken first to their family home before being moved to the nearby mosque. After that, they will be carried several hundred metres to an Islamic school, for further prayers. They will then be taken to one of two village graveyards to be buried next to their father.
Family members, including the wives of the bombers, have gathered in the village. Both Amrozi and Mukhlas have two wives.
Ali Fauzi said the wives asked Irnensif to allow them to see their husbands before they die and the prosecutor agreed to pass on the request and try to facilitate a visit. Source: Sydney Morning Herald
From correspondents in Tenggulun, Indonesia | November 07, 2008
THE families of the three Bali bombers on death row have been told to "get ready" for the executions.
Prosecutors and police visited the family of brothers Amrozi, 47, and Mukhlas, 48, in the east Java village of Tenggulun 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 Irnensis said after speaking to the family for about 30 minutes.
He made no further comment and did not specify when the three bombers - Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra, 38 - would be executed by firing squad.
Indonesian officials have said only that the executions will take place in "early November".
The bombers were sentenced in 2003 for the attack which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. Source: The Australian
November 06, 2008
JAKARTA: Islamic extremists have rallied in the Indonesian capital against the imminent execution of three Bali bombers, as defence lawyers demanded the families be allowed a final visit.
Chanting “Allahu Akbar” (God is greater), about 100 militants descended on the offices of the national human rights body as the bombers' lawyers met officials inside to demand access for the families.
The radicals condemned the executions, believed to be hours or days away, and praised bombers Amrozi, 47, his brother Mukhlas, 48, and Imam Samudra, 38, as “holy warriors”.
They carried banners pledging to follow the bombers' path of jihad or “holy war” and warning that “hell” awaited the executioners.
As heavy rain hit the prison island of Nusakambangan, Central Java, overnight, Indonesian media reported that the trio will be executed imminently near a disused prison at Nirbaya hill.
Rubber and coconut farmers who usually frequent the site have been told to stay away.
Television station TV One showed footage of three wooden posts erected at the jungle site, to which the three men will be secured and simultaneously shot by separate firing squads.
Defence lawyer Mahendradatta urged the human rights body, Komnas Ham, to back the families' demand for visiting rights.
Komnas Ham chairman Ifdhal Kasim said the prisoners had a right to meet their families before they faced the firing squad.
Meanwhile the families wrote to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono pleading for a delay in the executions, defence lawyer Fahmi Bachmid said.
He said however that the letter was not a request for clemency. The bombers have said they want to die to become “martyrs” for their dream of creating an Islamic utopia across Southeast Asia.
The bombings on the resort island of Bali in 2002 killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
The government has said the condemned men will be executed by firing squad in “early November” after they exhausted the appeals process.
Source: The Australian
Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta correspondent | November 03, 2008
THE Bali bombers have won a small victory in their attempts to delay their impending executions, with Denpasar District Court accepting an application to have the Supreme Court reconsider their death sentences.
However the reprieve could be short lived, with the higher court already adamant it has no further interest in the matter.
Despite incessant rumours of the impending executions of Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, Ali Ghufron alias Mukhlas and Abdul Azis alias Imam Samudra, delay after delay has hit the process.
Family members of all three men are waiting at the southern central Java port town of Cilacap for permission to visit the trio on death row.
However that permission had still not been given by midday, and the visitors and the men's lawyers said they would return home if it was still not given by the end of the afternoon.
Tomorrow is thought unlikely to be an appropriate execution date, with a major regional election being carried out for the east Java governor's position.
Amrozi and Mukhlas are both from the small village of Tenggulun in east Java, and village head Abu Sholeh says he will be extremely inconvenienced if he is expected to run the polling booth around the chaos of the men's funerals.
The village itself has filled with journalists, who are being received with open arms by residents. Abu Sholeh has even gone to some lengths to procure accommodation for visiting reporters.
Wednesday is also likely to be a difficult date for Indonesia's most notorious terrorists to be executed, given it will be the final day of a five-day visit by Prince Charles.
Amrozi's and Mukhlas's mother, Tariyem, is remaining largely behind closed doors in her modest home, emerging only briefly today to express her happiness that the executions appeared yet again to have been put off.
The major Jawa Pos newspaper even speculated this morning that, despite Attorney General Hendarman Supandji's pronouncement more than two weeks ago that he expected the executions to take place "in early November", the wait for the three men to die could be much longer. Source: The Australian
The three Bali bombers are reportedly frustrated at delays to their executions even as new court action looms to prevent the sentence being carried out.
Imam Samudra and brothers Amrozi and Mukhlas will go before the firing squad imminently over their lead roles in the 2002 nightclub bombings.
According to a relative, Mukhlas has requested the execution be carried out without further delay.
Yet, even as authorities finalise arrangements and tighten security for the executions, lawyers are preparing to lodge another last-ditch court appeal for the bombing trio who killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
Mukhlas brother-in-law Nasir Abas told the Indonesian newspaper Radar Banyumas that the bomber was annoyed by the wait to die.
'For me this decision is in accordance with what he (Mukhlas) wishes, which is to die as a martyr,' Abas said.
'He has asked for it to be done immediately.
'The delays of the executions is not Mukhlas' wish, but it is the wish of his lawyer, who according to me, is running a secular legal process which is hated by Mukhlas himself.'
An appeal seeking to prevent the executions was to be lodged on Monday, but it on what grounds is unclear.
On Sunday night, speculation intensified that the executions would happen soon after two helicopters which will transport the bombers bodies to their home villages for burial arrived on the prison island of Nusakambangan, near Cilacap, off the southern coast of Central Java.
About 100 members of the radical Islamic Defenders Front gathered to pray for the bombers at a mosque in Cilacap, and called on Indonesians around the country to do the same as the men faced their final hours.
However, all was quiet overnight at the jail.
The three Islamic militants are now expected to receive visits from relatives and lawyers on Monday morning.
Haji Agus Bambang Priyanto, a Muslim Balinese police officer who helped coordinate rescue efforts after the bombing and worked with local communities to prevent Muslim-Hindu tensions from flaring up in Bali, said he was losing patience.
'The Bali bombing victims have been waiting for a long time for justice and victims families and Balinese people are fed up,' he told AAP.
'Our chest is getting heavier after seeing Amrozi and his friends boasting on television.
'We have almost lost trust whether they will be executed or not.'
Heru Djatmiko, who was injured and lost his mother and nephew in the 2005 Bali bombings, also blamed on the Jemaah Islamiyah group behind the 2002 attack, said the government seemed scared of the political ramifications of carrying out the executions.
'The executions have been delayed a few times and a lot of people are sick and tired of waiting,' he said.
'My disappointment is that the government has not been doing anything to send the message that killing people for the sake of religion is not right.
'The government does not have the guts. I guess they are worried that it could create more political turmoil.'
For many, concerns that the bombers' supporters would seek to avenge their deaths underscored the need for the government to execute the men.
'The longer we wait, the more time their supporters have to get ready,' said Dewi Widiartha, who works at a hotel in Legian, Bali.
Experts have said a terrorist attack to avenge the bombers' executions was unlikely, but warned lower level unrest could break out when their bodies are returned to their villages Source: Sky News
November 02, 2008
FAMILY members of the Bali bombers are making their way to their Central Java prison, as their executions loom.
It's unclear exactly when the three Islamic militants - Imam Samudra, Amrozi and his brother Mukhlas will go before the firing squad, but the executions are imminent.
The three Islamic militants have been in isolation lock-down at Batu Prison on Nusakambangan Island, off Central Java, since Friday.
Security has been tightened across Indonesia in anticipation of the executions, with security personnel on alert from the island to other potential flashpoints across the country, including reportedly the Australian, British and US embassies.
The Islamic legal team representing the convicted terrorists is seeking clarification of their legal status, amid reports they have received formal notification their executions will be carried out within days.
They have requested a meeting with the bombers tomorrow.
On-line newspaper Kompas said relatives of the so-called smiling assassin Amrozi were also enroute to the prison island, leaving their village in East Java yesterday afternoon.
"The family left on the request of the Muslim legal team,'' said a relative, Khozin.
"We are hoping the family will meet if the executions are to really be carried out.''
Death row prisoners receive notification 72 hours before they are executed, although there is no requirement to inform their lawyers or families.
They are expected to be executed within days, possibly overnight.
The three men have publicly threatened that their executions will be avenged. Source: The Australain
From correspondents in Jakarta | November 01, 2008
INDONESIA has stepped up security around foreign embassies amid fears of attacks as it prepares to execute the three Islamists convicted over the Bali nightclub bombings which killed 202 people.
Police have revealed they had found and defused two bombs in a Balinese Hindu migrant area on Sulawesi island on Wednesday and Thursday as tensions mount ahead of the imminent executions.
"I think there is a connection between this and the execution of Amrozi and others," local police chief Suparni Parto said, referring to bombers Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra, who could be executed as early as today.
National police spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira said extra police had been stationed around embassies in Jakarta, especially the US and Australian missions, as well as sensitive locations across the main island of Java.
"We are increasing security at embassies and public places such as malls," he said.
Bus terminals, railway stations and houses of worship were also possible targets, he said.
"The exact date (for the execution) is the Attorney-General's Office's decision but the police are ready for the execution to be carried out any time."
Officials have said Imam Samudra, 38, Amrozi, 47, and Mukhlas, 48, will be executed by firing squad any time from midnight last night until mid-November.
They were sentenced six years ago for the 2002 bombings on the resort island of Bali which killed more than 160 foreigners including 88 Australians.
The attack, launched in retaliation for the US invasion of Afghanistan, remains one of the bloodiest terror bombings carried out in the name of Islam since the September 11 attacks on the United States.
The executions have been repeatedly delayed by a series of failed appeals and most recently by the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in September.
Attorney-General's Office spokesman Jasam Pandjaitan told the Antara state news agency the executions would be carried out "soon."
The Balinese prosecutor in charge of the executions reportedly arrived early yesterday at the prison island of Nusakambangan off southern Java where the bombers are being held, along with police responsible for firing squads.
The younger brother of Amrozi and Mukhlas said the family had not been informed of the executions, as they should be three days in advance.
Beaming broadly like his older brother Amrozi, who is known as the "smiling assassin," Ali Fauzi said the family had nothing to be ashamed about.
"Do we feel embarrassed or ashamed of what they have done? No, we feel proud because in this world full of lies and accusations there are still people who are ready to fight against that," he said in Tenggulun village , East Java.
Fears of a violent backlash from Islamist radicals in the world's most populous Muslim country have risen amid reports that hundreds of extremists are planning to protest near the prison.
The vast majority of Indonesian Muslims are moderate but a small fanatical fringe have waged jihad, or holy war, for many years in a bid to bring about an Islamic caliphate across South-East Asia.
The country has been hit by a string of attacks since 2000, including a suicide bombing in Bali which killed 20 people in 2005, a car bombing at the Australian embassy which killed 10 people in 2004 and another car bombing at the American-owned JW Marriott hotel which killed 12 people in 2003.
Most of the attacks including the 2002 blasts have been attributed to the Jemaah Islamiah regional terror network. Source: The Australian
Cindy Wockner in Semarang, Java
October 30, 2008 12:00am
THE men who will form the firing squad that takes aim at the Bali bombers' hearts will be single and healthy and will have passed regular psychological checks.
They will also be good shots with a rifle -- most probably an SS1, using 5.5mm bullets.
This week they practised on police firing ranges shooting at life-sized cut-out targets of men as well as circles.
Three squads of 12 marksmen, plus a commander and a senior member, will soon be chosen to shoot Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra, possibly this weekend.
They will be executed on Nusa Kambangan Island, near the town of Cilacap.
Almost 1000 police are on standby in Central Java to deal with potential trouble.
Police were conducting road blocks and ID and vehicle checks of cars coming and going from Cilacap.
The firing squads will be chosen from Brimob -- the Brigadier Mobile Brigade -- part of the paramilitary police in the Central Java region, closest to where the executions will take place.
The headquarters of the Central Java region is the city of Semarang, about six hours' drive from the execution site.
Members of Brimob were conducting their regular shooting and target practice this week. At first they fired from 100m, then moved to 75m and 50m. They fired standing and kneeling.
As target practice is part of their normal routine, commanders say they don't need to do anything special to qualify for a firing squad, because everyone in the squad can shoot well.
Brimob's Central Java chief, Commissioner Wahyudi Hidayat, said the firing squads would be chosen from 1870 candidates.
Commanders knew their members well and would choose the squads.
"All of Brimob has been trained to do jobs like the firing squad," he said. "We don't have any specific team . . . because everybody must be trained to do it.
"We just do normal basic Brimob training and we have shooting training almost every day."
Brimob's national commander, Insp Gen Sylvanus Yulian Wenas, said no one ever refused firing squad duty unless they were ill. Squads were chosen at the last minute. He laughed at the suggestion they would need special training.
"If it's only for shooting Amrozi, why do we need to practise? Every person in the squad can do it," he said.
Of the 12 shooters in each squad, only three have live bullets in their weapons -- so no one knows who fires the fatal shot.
Firing squad members aim at reflectors pinned over a prisoner's heart.
Should a prisoner survive, the commander has an "amnesty shot" to the head with a revolver.
In practice this has not happened in any recent execution in Indonesia.
Source: Herald Sun
October 01, 2008
THREE death row Bali bombers today vowed there would be retribution if their executions went ahead.
Amrozi, who played a lead role in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, also said he would carry out another bombing if given the chance.
His comments came as people gathered in Bali to mark the third anniversary of the second bombings in 2005 that killed 20 people, including four Australians.
Amrozi remained defiant today, as he and his co-accused - his brother Mukhlas and Imam Samudra - were allowed out of their cells at their island prison off Central Java to mark the Islamic holiday Idul Fitri.
“If it's true that there will be an execution, then all the people committing the execution will be condemned to die by god,” Amrozi said at the jail on Nusakambangan Island.
“Is anyone ready to die? Only god knows about that.
“If it's true that later on I will be executed, certainly there will be someone who will take revenge. I don't have to say who will take revenge.”
Mukhlas also said “all the executors”, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, would pay if the three bombers were put before a firing squad.
“Execution is the biggest criminal act (possible), especially when it is applied to warriors like us,” he said.
“All those who are involved in the execution will be condemned by god,” he ranted, adding shouts of “god is great”.
“The followers will take revenge actions, other warriors. If anyone kills us then there will be a (sic) revenge from all over the place.
“I've never regretted these bombings ... I will not ask for forgiveness from those infidels.”
The three bombers last week reportedly said they were confident they would not be put to death this year.
The Indonesian government halted plans for their executions out of respect for the holy Islamic fasting month, but is expected to resume preparations shortly.
The three men have exhausted all legitimate legal options.
However, their lawyers have launched yet another action in Indonesia's Constitutional Court, arguing that execution by firing squad amounts to torture because they might not die immediately. Source: The Australian
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