Jakarta - Indonesia postponed the execution of three Bali bombers until after Ramadan out of respect for the Muslim fasting month, the country's attorney general said Thursday. The executions by firing squad of Imam Samudra, Armozi and his brother Ali Ghufron, alias Mukhlas, who were convicted in the 2002 bombings that killed 202 people, were initially to have been carried out before Ramadan, which begins Monday, after they had exhausted all their appeals.
"I have already received all necessary documents to move forward, but the executions have to be postponed until after the fasting month of Ramadan," Attorney General Hendarman Supandji told reporters. "It's impossible the executions take place during Ramadan."
He gave no new date for the executions but vowed they would be carried out this year.
The three Muslim militants have been on death row since 2003 when a Bali court sentenced them to death for their roles in the bombings that killed mostly Australian vacationers and Indonesians.
The three have refused to seek presidential clemency, wishing to die as martyrs and believing that their fate lies in God's hands.
Their attorneys, however, filed a challenge before the Constitutional Court, arguing that death by firing squad often results in painful deaths and constituted torture and inhuman treatment, which violates the country's constitution.
The lawyers said last week that they have demanded the executions be delayed while the Constitutional Court deliberates the matter.
Imam Samudra, Mukhlas and Amrozi, who is also known as the "smiling assassin" for his expressions during their trial and appearances before the media, were members of Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaeda-linked regional terrorist network responsible for several bombings across Indonesia.
Those attacks include simultaneous church bombings on Christmas Eve 2000, bombings on Bali in 2002 and 2005, the bombing of a JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta in 2004 and an attack on the Australian embassy in 2005.
