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Bali bombers given health checks for execution
* Doctors check Bali bombers* Required for autopsy comparison * Men given all-clear for execution A TEAM of police and prison doctors have examined the three Bali bombers in preparation for their executions as militants gathered at the home of two of them to warn against killing them. The medical checks are done to use as comparison with the autopsies after the executions and include blood pressure and heart checks.
Yesterday, all non-jail workers were ordered away from the island where the bombers will be shot, and small boats banned from the area. A source inside Batu prison - where Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra are being held for their part in the October 2002 murders of 202 people, including 88 Australians - said they had refused to see prosecutors who came to show them documents late on Wednesday. The prosecutors, who are in charge of their executions, read a document to the three from outside. Jailers were kept back and did not hear the contents or if it was in fact the 72-hour execution notice. Wooden posts have now been erected at the death zone to which the bombers will be strapped when they face the firing squads. In a statement from their lawyers, the men said their blood would "become the light for the faithful ones and burning hell fire for the infidels and hypocrites". Hundreds of members of the radical Islamic Defenders Front arrived in Tenggulun yesterday to support the family and put on a show of force for the media. Shouting at the press, they walked from an Islamic school to the house of the bombers' mother Tariyem. Carrying hand-written banners reading "America terrorist" and "If one hero dies 1000 will grow, if three die then one million will grow", they marched past villagers whose lives have been thrown into chaos by the spectacle. The wife of Mukhlas, Farida, also arrived to pay her respects to his mother. As the mob arrived at the family home, a frail-looking Tariyem and her daughter Asfiyah emerged from their house to meet the militants and face the media. While more slogans were shouted and speeches offering "moral" support repeated, the old woman managed to raise her fist twice in defiance in time with the mob. Amri Hata, the head of the local prosecutor's office, visited Imam Samudra's house in Lopang Gede village in West Java's Serang area with the head of the Serang Ulema Council and Serang police chief amid heavy police guard. "We just informed the family if (the executions) happened, the family must be ready to accept," he said. The families of the bombers say they have sent a letter to the president. "The execution of my brother is against the law and therefore a murder, and I will sue," said Lulu Jamaluddin, Imam Samudra's younger brother. The bombers' lawyers have repeatedly said the Constitutional Court had struck down retroactive provisions in anti-terrorism laws, which were written in the wake of the 2002 attacks and used to convict them. However, authorities said the Constitutional Court's ruling did not apply to the Bali bombers. Islamic extremists also rallied in Jakarta yesterday against the imminent execution as defence lawyers demanded the families be allowed a final visit. Chanting "God is great", some 100 militants descended on the offices of the national human rights body as the bombers' lawyers met officials inside to demand access for the families. They carried banners pledging to follow the bombers' path of jihad or "holy war", and warning that "hell" awaits the executioners. Posted by: Oztralian 2008-11-06 |
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