Bali bombers defiant on Muslim holiday

NUSAKAMBANGAN, Indonesia-Three Islamic militants on death row for the deadly 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali sounded a defiant tone on Wednesday during celebrations to mark the end of the Muslim fasting month."Please stay out of immoral places, because if my friends bomb the place, there will be casualties," Amrozi, one of the three bombers, told reporters who were allowed to cover the event at a maximum security prison on Nusakambangan island off Java.Amrozi was dubbed "the smiling bomber" because of his constant grin during the trial after the attacks on Bali's Kuta strip on October 12, 2002 that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians and 38 Indonesian citizens.The attacks by the Southeast Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) were intended to scare away foreigners as part of their drive to make Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, part of a larger Islamic caliphate.After praying, the two other militants, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra, pointed at several Australian and American journalists and said: "Number one enemy."Indonesia's attorney general said in August his office would wait until after Ramadan to execute the men, who have refused to seek clemency from Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and said they want to die as martyrs.Separately, Indonesia marked the end of Ramadan by cutting the sentences of more than 53,000 prisoners, including several jailed for having a role in bomb attacks in Bali, said Akbar Hadi, a spokesman for the Directorate General of State Penitentiary. Indonesia traditionally gives remissions on its independence day on August 17 and on some religious holidays, but the move has sometimes caused anger because it has included inmates jailed over militant bomb attacks.The remissions to mark Eid al-Fitr celebrations varied from 15 days to two months, said Hadi.
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