Indonesia court hears Bali bombers case review

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

The three men, known as the Bali bombers, 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 in the resort island, which is predominantly Hindu.

A lawyer for the three men asked the court in Denpasar, Bali's capital, 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 on Monday.

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

"We'd like to request the court to move the hearing to Cilacap because we plan to present new evidence, witnesses, expert witnesses, and the three convicts to the court," said Bachmid.

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.

At Monday's court hearing in Denpasar for Imam Samudra, the prosecutor dismissed the request for a case review as a bid to delay the executions.

"The second case review requested by the defence team over the Supreme Court's decision on behalf of Imam Samudra contains the same material as the case review request" presented the first time around, prosecutor Olopan Nainggolan said during the hearing.

"Even the structure of the request is similar, hence (we think) this is just an act of delaying" the execution date, he said.

The presiding judge said that the hearing would resume next week, when the judges would respond to the request.

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.