Bali bombers file new appeal to Indonesia court

Denpasar (Indonesia), Dec 7: Three Indonesian men sentenced to death for the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings have filed new appeals to the Supreme Court, a district court official said today.

Lawyers representing Muslim militants, Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Mukhlas, also known as Ali Gufron, handed in the appeal late yesterday to the Denpasar district court where they first received the death sentences, said Made Sukarta, the court's clerk for criminal cases.

''Before the judicial review is forwarded to the Supreme Court, it has been decided as necessary for the Denpasar court to assign judges and clerks who will examine the request first,'' Sukarta told reporters.

Indonesia put off an August plan to execute the three men 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.

In the judicial review document, lawyers of the convicted bombers argued that the Constitutional Court in a 2004 ruling had annulled provisions that had enabled the retroactive use of Indonesia's new anti-terrorism laws.

The three men were tried using those laws which were written in the wake of the October 12, 2002 bombings that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.

''The Constitutional Court's decision firmly stated that Law No 16/2003 has no legal binding,'' the document said, referring to the disputed retroactive provision.

The defence also said in the document that if there was an opinion striking down this argument as fitting into a category of new evidence that ''shows there are efforts to make legal acrobats by searching for reasons to justify a mistake.'' It could take weeks or even months before the Supreme Court rules on the new appeals.

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

Executions in Indonesia are conducted by a firing squad.

The bombings in Bali have been blamed on the Southeast Asian Islamic militant group Jemaah Islamiah.

Reuters