Bali bombers to be executed this year

JAKARTA, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- The Islamic militants who bombed two Bali nightclubs in 2002 will be executed before the end of the year, officials said.

An Indonesian court on Tuesday rejected appeals by Amrozi Nurhashyim, Ali Gufron and Imam Samudra that they be beheaded instead of shot by a firing squad.

They said the Indonesian method of execution -- shooting through the heart with rifles fired from close range -- is tantamount to torture, The Times of London reported.

"The reasons given are baseless and have to be rejected," the head of the court, Mohammad Mahfud, said. "There is no method which can guarantee there will be no pain in the implementation (because) all have the risk of inaccuracy in the implementation ... The pain (of) death convicts endure is a logical consequence inherent in a death process ... so it is not categorized as torture."

The three Bali bombings killed 202, including 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians and 24 Britons, died in the three in the resort town of Kuta six years ago. The three bombers were sentenced to death in 2003, the newspaper said.