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BALI BOMBERS EXECUTED
* Confirmed dead, family with bodies * Timeline: Bombings to executions THREE Bali bombers have been executed on an Indonesian island for their lead roles in the 2002 nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. The family of Mukhlas and his younger brother Amrozi said the bombers had been executed along with Imam Samudra just after midnight local time (4am AEDT) on Nusakambangan Island, in Central Java, where they had been jailed. "Our family has received news of the execution ... May our brothers, God willing, be invited by green birds to heaven now," Mohammad Chozin, a brother of Mukhlas and Amrozi, said in their home village of Tenggulun. "We're now handling the preparations to bring the bodies back, which may take two hours," he said outside an Islamic boarding school in the east Java village, as supporters shouted "Allahu Akbar". Indonesia's Attorney General's Office later confirmed the executions had taken place. "At 12.15am, the convicts ... were executed by shooting and followed up with an autopsy," spokesman Jasman Pandjaitan said. "They have been stated as dead. At this moment the bodies are being washed by the family." The bombers were simultaneously shot through the heart by crack Indonesian troops assembled to carry out the task. They were executed in an orchard some 6km from their prison on Nusakambangan Island, Indonesia's TV One reported. A source at the prison said they shouted "Allahu Akbar" as they were escorted out of their isolation cells by paramilitary police shortly before their executions. Australians expressed relief that the men were finally dead, six years after they brought carnage to Bali by sending suicide bombers to attack the Sari Club and nearby Paddy's Bar on October 12, 2002. "... we've waited a very long time for this and this is our justice," Sydney woman Maria Kotronakis, who lost two sisters and two cousins, told CNN, struggling at times to speak. "Finally the moment has come ... we are over the moon." Survivor Peter Hughes, of Perth, who suffered horrific burns in the bombings, said the three militants had paid the highest price for mass murder, but their executions did not bring him any joy. "These guys went to set about mass murder and paid the highest penalty," he told CNN. "It doesn't feel good but they did do the crime and they've paid for it." The bombers' bodies will soon be flown by helicopter to their home villages for burial within 24 hours, in accordance with Muslim custom. In Tenggulun, sobbing mourners are converging on the home of Amrozi and Mukhlas' mother. Hardline cleric Abu Bakar Bashir -- the co-founder of Jemaah Islamiah, the group blamed for the Bali bombings -- praised the bombers as "holy warriors" during a visit to the village on Saturday.
Australian authorities have advised Australians to reconsider the need to travel to Indonesia. Posted by: Oztralian 2008-11-08 |
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