Indonesia president says Bali bombers must be executed

JAKARTA - Indonesia's president has said the death sentence for three Islamic militants on death row for the 2002 Bali bombings must be carried out, hinting in a television interview that he will not grant them clemency.

Imam Samudra, Amrozi and Mukhlas, also known as Ali Gufron, were sentenced to death for the Oct. 12, 2002 resort island bombings in which more than 200 people died, most of them foreigners.

They face execution by a firing squad after the country's Supreme Court rejected their final appeal.

The three have refused to seek clemency to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, saying they want to die as martyrs.

"The perpetrators have been sentenced to death and according to our law, that must be implemented," Yudhoyono told Al Jazeera television in an interview aired on Thursday.

"How, when (it will be carried out) very much depends on a set of procedures to be followed," he said.

Yudhoyono said Indonesia was "very serious" in fighting terrorism, noting that the world's most populous Muslim nation had captured many militants involved in a series of deadly attacks in recent years.

"Of course we have not won the war against terrorism but we have won many battles. We will continue," he said.

The bombings in Bali and several other attacks have been blamed on the southeast Asian Islamic militant group Jemaah Islamiah.