Amrozi's bid for third trial relocation may be met

Dicky Christanto ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Denpasar   |  Fri, 05/09/2008 9:37 AM

The Depasar District Court will consult with the Supreme Court over the Bali bombers' request for a third case review trial, district court head says Tuesday.

I Nyoman Geded Wirya said he would suggest the judges of the Supreme Court grant the prisoners' request to have their trial in Cilacap District Court, Central Java, due to security and financial reasons.

"The prisoners are likely to represent themselves this time. So I am going to ask the Supreme Court to consider moving the trial to Cilacap because Denpasar court cannot guarantee their security," he told The Jakarta Post.

On top of the security reason, transportation costs to take the prisoners to Denpasar from their current location at Nusakambangan prison in Cilacap, Central Java, are expensive, Wirya said.

"We simply don't have the funds to transport them to Denpasar," he said. The final decision, however, is up to the Supreme Court panel, he said.

Last week, Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Ali Ghufron, who are on death row over the Bali bombings, requested their third case review.

A few months earlier, the Denpasar District Court refused to grant their last case review. This time they went through the chief warden at Batu's maximum security prison.

The prisoners requested a review on the grounds that the arguments provided by the court for rejecting their last case review were unclear.

The prisoners are currently waiting for the Supreme Court's decision, Achmad Michdan, from the Muslim Lawyers Team, said.

"We handed the request to the chief warden last week, however, we still don't know the court's response," he said.

The third case review request was a response to earlier discriminative treatment from the Denpasar court judges, he said.

Many, including prosecutors, believe the request is just a way to delay the firing squad from executing the three.

Michdan said neither he nor the prisoners intended to postpone the execution.

"The prisoners are ready to face their death at any time," he said. "But what we are doing here is maximizing the chance of self defense.

"So, if in order to do so we have to file a case review for many times, so be it."

The Denpasar District Court sentenced Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Ali Ghufron to death in Aug. 8, 2003 after the judges were convinced that the three orchestrated the 2002 Bali blasts, killing more than 200 people, most of them foreigners.

The ruling was then strengthened by the Supreme Court ruling which rejected their appeal in 2004. Two subsequent case review requests were rejected because of their lawyer's failure to present witnesses and convincing new evidence.

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