FACTBOX: Three men executed for 2002 Bali bombings

Sat Nov 8, 2008 3:00pm EST
 
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(Reuters) - Indonesia executed three members of Muslim militant group Jemaah Islamiah -- Imam Samudra, Mukhlas and Amrozi -- for the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings in which 202 people died, the attorney-general's office said on Sunday.

Here are some details about the three men.

* AMROZI:

-- The mechanic from Lamongan, East Java, was dubbed the "smiling bomber" because of his constant grin during the trial.

-- He was the first of the three Bali bombers to be arrested by Indonesian police in November 2002 and the first to be sentenced to death, in August 2003.

-- Amrozi was a student of Abu Bakar Bashir, the radical Muslim cleric who denied accusations that he was also involved in the bomb attacks.

-- In May 2008, Amrozi remarried his ex-wife, though he was not present at the ceremony. He had wanted to hold the reunion ceremony at the island prison in Central Java where he was held, but the authorities rejected the request.

* IMAM SAMUDRA:

-- Accused of being the chief planner of the Bali bombings, described by police as a computer expert from Serang in western Java.

-- The second of the bombers to be arrested, in late November 2002, he confessed to planning the bomb attacks and was sentenced to death in September 2003.

-- Prosecutors said the former religious school teacher had learned how to make bombs in Afghanistan and that he was behind a string of church bombings in Indonesia in 2000.

* MUKHLAS, ALSO KNOWN AS ALI GUFRON

-- Amrozi's older brother, the Islamic teacher Mukhlas, was arrested in central Java in early December 2002.

-- Accused of being the operational chief of Jemaah Islamiah's Southeast Asian branch, he said he did not play a direct role in the Bali attack. He retracted a confession in June 2003, saying he had been tortured into confessing by interrogators.

-- He remained defiant throughout his trial and refused to co-operate with investigators. According to some reports, he continued to distribute sermons to his followers while in prison. Source: Reuters

 

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