Lawyers say Bali bomber execution plan premature

JAKARTA, July 28 (Reuters) Lawyers for three men sentenced to death over the 2002 Bali blasts will sue Indonesia's attorney-general's office if the executions are carried out before appeals are exhausted, the defence team said today.

On Tuesday, a Bali prosecutor said they might soon execute Imam Samudra, Amrozi and Ali Gufron who have been on death row for more than two years after courts convicted them of leading roles in the October 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali that killed 202 people, most of them tourists.

''The executions cannot be done because they should wait for the judicial review process,'' said lawyer M Mahendradatta in a news conference.

Under Indonesian law, a convict may still challenge a verdict upheld by the Supreme Court through another appeal called a judicial review which requires strong new evidence.

After such an appeal is filed, the Indonesian Supreme Court could assign a district court to hear the evidence, although the final decision remains in the hands of the top court.

The Bali prosecutor has said the executions are tentatively schedule for the third week of August.

Asked when the condemned men might file final appeals, Mahendradatta said they were waiting for government assurance the appeals would not require their clients to return to the Bali courts where they were sentenced.

''Let Bali recover for the sake of tourism. Don't remind them of past incidents,'' Mahendradatta said, adding his defence team was harrassed by the Balinese during previous trials.

Another lawyer said Samudra's mother wanted to be executed along with her son.

Amrozi, dubbed the ''smiling bomber'' for his chilling grin and expressions of delight at the 2002 Bali carnage, had said during his trial he welcomed the death penalty.

Executions in Indonesia are normally carried out by a firing squad, with the exact location and time kept secret.

Normally, under Indonesian law, death row convicts are executed in the place where they have been tried.

But the attorney-general's office has sought permission to shift the execution from Bali to the prison island of Nusakambangan in Central Java province.

The militants were sent to Nusakambangan after Balinese anger grew following another round of suicide blasts on the resort island in October 2005. Those attacks killed 20 people.

The bombings in Bali have been blamed on the Southeast Asian Islamic militant group, Jemaah Islamiah, which authorities say has links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

REUTERS PKS PM1807