JURIST - Paper Chase: Indonesia to suspend execution of Bali bombers during Ramadan

[JURIST] Indonesian Attorney General Hendarman Supandji announced [Jakarta Post report] Wednesday that the men convicted of the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings [BBC backgrounder] will not be executed until after the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, during which the death penalty is not implemented. Supandji said that he could not approve the executions because he has not yet received certification from the country's Constitutional Court that the men, Mukhlas, Imam Samudra and Amrozi Nurhasyim [BBC profiles] have exhausted all of their appeals. Earlier this month, the court accepted the men's challenge [JURIST report] to the country's use of firing squad executions, a punishment they argue amounts to "torture" and is contrary to Islamic law [VOA report]. That challenge alone would not be sufficient reason to postpone the executions. AFP has more.

All three men are members of the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) [CFR backgrounder; JURIST news archive] and their lawyer had promised to bring their constitutional challenge against the penalty after the Indonesian Supreme Court rejected their third appeal [JURIST reports] of the charges in July. Their first appeal had been rejected late last year, prompting an unusual second appeal, which was later withdrawn [JURIST reports].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 of other terrorism charges.

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