JURIST - Paper Chase: Bali bombers filing constitutional challenge to firing squad execution

[JURIST] A lawyer for three Indonesian men sentenced to death for their role in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings [BBC backgrounder] that killed 202 people said Monday that he would file a constitutional challenge to their method of execution. Mukhlas, Imam Samudra and Amrozi Nurhasyim [BBC profiles] will claim that death by firing squad amounts to "torture," as the condemned are often not killed by the first round of bullets, and insist that the method is contrary to Islamic law [VOA report]. The three men, all members of Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) [CFR backgrounder; JURIST news archive], requested they be executed by beheading [BBC report] rather than firing squad in a 2006 Supreme Court appeal. AP has more. VOA has additional coverage.

In July, the Indonesian Supreme Court rejected the third appeal [JURIST report] made by the three men. Their first appeal was rejected late last year, prompting an unusual second appeal, which was later withdrawn [JURIST reports]. In May, Indonesian police arrested [JURIST report] another JI member, Faiz Fauzan, in connection with the another set of Bali bombings [BBC report] in 2005. In March, an Indonesian judge handed down 15-year sentences [JURIST report] to two JI leaders, Zarkasih and Abu Dujana [BBC profiles], after convicting them on other terrorism charges.

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