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Bali bombers make court appeal

Bali - Three on death row for 2002 bombs
Bali - Three on death row for 2002 bombs

Three militants on death row for the 2002 Bali bomb attacks have begun court proceedings in a Bali court in a last-ditch attempt to avoid execution.

The three men face death by firing squad for their role in the two nightclub blasts which killed more than 200 people, including foreign tourists and Indonesians.

The blasts dealt a severe blow to tourism on the resort island.

A lawyer for the three men asked the court in the Bali capital, Denpasar, to consider a case review.

The Supreme Court struck down the three men's final appeal in March 2004, and rejected a similar request for a case review last year.

Prosecutors said they would be executed soon unless they sought clemency from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The cases of the three Indonesians, Imam Samudra, Mukhlas and Amrozi were heard separately.

Lawyers requested that the court move the hearing to a town in Central Java near the maximum security prison where the three are held.

Lawyers previously argued that the first case review was not heard according to proper procedures.

They also said that 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 the three men.

The prosecutor dismissed the request for a case review as a bid to delay the executions.

Under Indonesian law, the Bali court will submit results of the review to the Supreme Court, which will then pass a verdict.

The three bombers have repeatedly said they will not appeal to the president for clemency, saying they want to die as martyrs.