Executions loom for Bali bombers

Everything is ready - even the autopsy table, cloth and water bucket needed to clean and dress the bodies after the Bali bombers are put to death. But in another move that could delay the executions, lawyers for the three death row prisoners have taken their fight to Indonesia's parliament.

Defence lawyers Mahendradatta and Achmad Michdan on Friday complained to Indonesia's National Human Rights Commission that the bombers' rights had not been fulfilled. They are seeking a final visit with brothers Amrozi, 47, and Mukhlas, 48, and Imam Samudra, 38, along with family, which could potentially delay the executions by days
if granted.

The commission earlier this week agreed to seek clarification from the Attorney General's Office, saying the family was entitled to a final visit. Members also vowed to urgently take the matter up with the Attorney General following a visit by the lawyers in Jakarta on Friday.

"This is urgent," commission member Nursyamsi Nurlan told online site detik.com. "This is about working through the laws, which according to the Muslim Lawyers' Team is not yet finished."

The defence team also suggested other legal avenues may be considered, claiming the family had not yet been asked if they wished to seek clemency.

There is unsubstantiated speculation the family may have made an eleventh-hour
request for clemency, in a secret letter sent to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
on Thursday.
Indonesian authorities said they were yet to receive the letter from the bombers'
family, although conceded the family could make a request for clemency without the
approval of the bombers themselves.
Attorney General's Office spokesman Jasman Panjaitan confirmed the family could
submit a clemency request, but it must be sent to Denpasar District Court.
"The clemency principle, it's forgiveness for the action, it means that there is
admission from the convicted about what he did," he said.
Preparations are 100 per cent in place for the executions of the trio who were
sentenced in 2003 for the attack that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
The mens' families were on Friday visited by prosecutors and police and told to "get
ready" for their deaths by firing squad, in another sign the executions are
imminent.
"We were just here to tell the family to get ready for when the executions take
place," chief district prosecutor Irnensis told reporters in east Java.
Family member Ali Fauzi said the family was ready.
"The prosecutor told us to get ready and prepare ourselves in case the execution
takes place," he told news agency AFP.
"And they told us not to wait for a letter informing us of the executions because
the Bali court has no obligation to send one. We told the prosecutor we're ready,
there's no problem."
Local newspaper Radar Banyumas, quoting an unnamed prison source, said everything
was now ready for the executions - even, morbidly, the autopsy table and cloth and
water bucket needed to clean and dress the bodies post-execution.
Security is also tightening on the convicted terrorists' prison island of
Nusakambangan, with authorities cracking down on telecommunications and forcing
visitors to surrender their mobile phones until they leave.
An AAP source on the Central Java island, where the three Islamic militants are
housed in Batu prison, said mobile phone signals were expected to be jammed from 9pm
local time on Friday night in anticipation of the executions being carried out.
Authorities also were planning a rehearsal of the proceedings on Friday afternoon,
the source said.