Jakarta (AsiaNews) - The death sentence will be carried out by firing squad, and not by decapitation. It's the last chapter in the judicial affair of the three attackers who in October of 2002 killed 202 people in Bali. The Indonesian constitutional court, the Mahkamah Konstitusi, has definitively rejected the request of the lawyers for one of the three men convicted, Amrozi bin H. Nurhasyim (in the photo, together with his lawyers). The Tim Pengacara Muslim (TPM), which is assisting the men, had asked again for decapitation, because it is more in keeping with Islamic law, and less excruciating than death by gunshot.
Indonesian law says that execution by firing squad is to be carried out by a platoon of 12 soldiers, six of whom are to have weapons loaded with blank cartridges. The condemned can choose to stand or sit, blindfolded, with his face either covered or uncovered.
The Mahkamah Konstitusi has reiterated the legitimacy of this method of execution, rejecting the last attempt to have the sentence revised. The last appeal presented by the attackers was rejected in September of 2007, and execution has been pending since then. The attorney general is expected to announce the date of the execution by Friday, October 24.
The legal affair of Amrozi, Imam Samudra, and Ali Gufron has been going on since 2003, when they were condemned to death by the court of the district of Denpasar. Objections on the basis of Islam by the three attackers and the media campaign conducted by the lawyers of the TPM have drawn out the matter until now. The news released in recent days, according to which the condemned have received medical examinations preliminary to execution, implies that this is now imminent.