Amrozi to appeal death sentence
Lawyers for the Bali bomber Amrozi say they will appeal the death sentence handed down to their client yesterday.
The court said Amrozi - who had confessed to involvement in the bombings - was legally responsible for an act of terrorism which claimed more than 200 lives.
The verdict and sentence were greeted by loud cheers in the courtroom, where many Australian survivors of the blast and relatives of victims had waited for the outcome.
The defiant Amrozi smiled when the court pronounced him guilty but was expressionless and shifted in his chair when the judge handed down the death sentence.
He clenched his fists, punched the air in triumph and smiled as police led him from the courtroom after the sentence was passed.
Survivors of the blasts and relatives of victims hugged and kissed each other as the verdict was read out and some shed tears. Many shouted with delight.
The guilty verdict was contained in a 223-page document read to the court by the five-judge panel. Included were the accounts of more than 50 witnesses, including Australian victims of the blasts.
The judgment concluded that Amrozi was a member of the team that planned the Sari nightclub and Paddy’s bar attacks and played a key role in carrying out the bombings.
Chief judge I Made Karna told the court: “The panel of judges declare that the defendant Amrozi has been found guilty of criminal acts in carrying out terrorist crimes … and the sentence on the defendant Amrozi is death.”
Amrozi does not want to appeal the sentence, but his lawyers say they will. “We are going to appeal first thing [this] morning,” Amrozi’s lawyer Wirawan Adnan told reporters after the trial.
Indonesia’s Foreign Affairs spokesman Marty Natalegawa says the verdict has shown the world his country can fight terrorism and deliver justice in a fair and responsible way.
“All is done through the process of law,” he said.
“No one’s civil liberty was second rate. Even the accused had his day in court, his case was heard, and the judges reached a decision which we all feel has served justice well.”
Prime Minister John Howard has welcomed the court’s decision.
“Most of all I hope that this verdict provides some sense of comfort for those who lost loved ones in this tragedy and they feel that in some way justice has been done,” he said.
Amrozi’s sentence was handed down just two days after a suicide bomber drove a van loaded with explosives similar to those used in Bali into a US-run luxury hotel in the capital, Jakarta, killing at least 10 people.
His is the first conviction among a group of militants standing trial after the devastating attacks, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
I’m a bit ambivalent about this. Not regarding the severity of the punishment, which slightly improves my opinion of a state legal system which has been notoriously negligent and corrupt in the past, and is in accordance with the need to wipe out religious extremism swiftly and effectively. Not regarding any dichotomy between the sentence and the evidence, which was practically insurmountable (his main defense was to confess to providing the van, confess to providing the chemicals, but deny having anything to do with the planning, although it was a bloody great thing to blow away 200 innocents and it made him very happy and proud). As satisfying as it is to think about this deluded little worm being blinked out of existence with the cost of a single bullet, is execution really the most appropriate punishment for someone who so obviously relishes the prospect of martyrdom? It seems to be the norm to be of the opinion that all terrorists should be mown down like dogs with extreme prejudice, and I’m not being an anti-death sentence campaigner or an apologist for mass murder by any means, but, taking for granted the self-evident fact that a rigorous and unbiased judicial system should be strictly adhered to, wouldn’t a lifelong convalescence in a stinking pit of an Indonesian gaol with the prospect of a lingering, lonely and anonymous death in old age be more of a fitting punishment for someone so indoctrinated and ill-educated as to believe in eternal reward in some sort of afterlife, and who could be seen as a role model for these misguided, hate-mongering individuals? If I so strenuously and unquestioningly believed that there were wall-to-wall virgins awaiting me in “Heaven”, depriving me of my freedom and dignity and keeping me alive for another few decades would be a far crueler sentence than any form of capital punishment.
Fun fact: 1 in every 200 people in the world are direct genetic descendants of Genghis Kahn.
