Indonesia gives Bali bombers last chance for appeal

JAKARTA, Dec 6 (Reuters) Three men sentenced to death for the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings have until the end of this month to file appeals with the Supreme Court before they are executed, the attorney-general said today.

''It is proper enough for the attorney-general's office to wait until the end of this month on whether they would file for a judicial review. If they don't file, the (execution) process will go forward,'' Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh said.

Indonesia put off an August plan to execute Muslim militants Imam Samudra, Amrozi and Ali Gufron alias Mukhlas because lawyers complained legal avenues had not been exhausted, although courts at various levels had dismissed their appeals.

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

Defence lawyers have kept pushing back the date of filing the request, a move seen as buying time for their clients.

Executions in Indonesia are conducted by a police firing squad.

Amrozi, dubbed the ''smiling bomber'' for his chilling grin and expressions of delight at the carnage, in which most of the more than 200 dead victims were foreign tourists, said during his trial he welcomed the death penalty.

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

REUTERS LL KP1722