THE three Bali bombers on death row will be denied their request to be executed by beheading and will face a firing squad, officials say. Lawyers for the men - Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Ali Gufron - had argued they should be allowed to die in a traditional Islamic way by having their heads cut off by a sword. But officials said they would not change the regulations.The three men have told their lawyers they will not appeal for clemency from Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Officials said that if no application for clemency was lodged within a month the executions would be carried out immediately. But one of the men's lawyers, Achmad Michdan, told journalists they planned to lodge an official letter next month complaining they did not get a fair hearing when the Supreme Court reviewed their cases this month.
Meanwhile, 10 Muslim extremists convicted over the bombings in Bali in 2002 and 2005 have been given a reduction in their sentences of up to six weeks to mark an Islamic holiday. Iham Djaja, governor of Bali's Kerobokan jail, announced the reductions two days after the Australian Schapelle Corby learnt she had been denied one for a second time this year because she had been found with a mobile phone in her cell.
Mr Djaja told journalists the sentence reductions were approved by authorities in Jakarta to mark Idul Fitri, the end of the Islamic fasting month. Corby, serving a 20-year sentence for possessing cannabis, had been eligible for a sentence reduction at Christmas because she is a Christian.