Jakarta, 28 June (AKI/Jakarta Post) - The Indonesian Attorney General's Office says it is preparing to execute three convicted Bali bombers and 16 drug traffickers sentenced to death for their offenses. Spokesman I Wayan Pasek Suarte did not reveal when the bombers - Imam Samudra, 36, Amrozi 43, and his elder brother Ali Ghufron, 46, alias Mukhlas - would face firing squads for their role in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings. The law forbids authorities from publicly releasing dates for executions until after the events, although the convicts and their families are informed in advance. 
Pasek said the AGO had received preliminary approval from Justice and Human Rights Minister Hamid Awaluddin to carry out the executions of the bombers at Nusakambangan Island, a heavy-guarded prison in waters off Cilacap in Central Java where they are on death row. Normally, death row convicts are executed in jails in the jurisdiction where their crimes were committed. However, the bombers would be executed outside of Bali for "safety reasons", Pasek said.
"The justice minister hasn't approved (the executions) formally, but thanks to our excellent relations with him, we can assure you that we have received a positive signal from the minister," he said.
Pasek said Imam, Amrozi and Mukhlas and their families had made formal statements they would not seek clemency from the President. "That's why we are preparing all the necessary procedures for the executions," he said. However, a lawyer for the terrorists, Ahmad Dinan, said the defense team planned to petition the Supreme Court to review the sentences. A "legal loophole" would be the focus of the defense's request for a case review, Dinan said.
"The convictions have violated the Constitution Court's ruling that laws cannot be retroactive. Because the law on terrorism was passed after the 2002 Bali bombings, it should not be applied in this case," he told The Jakarta Post.
The Denpasar District Court sentenced the three militants to death in September 2003 for the 2002 bombings that killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists. Pasek said prosecutors would also execute 16 of 43 men and women the state had sentenced to death for drug trafficking.