Death row Bali bombers given last chance to request pardon

Islamic militants on death row for their role in the 2002 Bali bombings will be given one more chance to request a pardon, officials told protesters today who were demanding their immediate execution.

Amrozi bin Nurhasyim and Imam Samudra, who played key roles in the twin nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, said earlier they had no intention of doing so, claiming they’d prefer to die.

Public calls to speed up their executions have mounted since a second series of attacks on Bali earlier this month killed 20 people.

50 protesters gathered in front of Bali’s local parliament today, some stabbing an effigy of Amrozi, then setting it on fire.

Indonesian law says the convicts cannot be put to death until all legal avenues have been exhausted.

The parliament’s deputy spokesman I Gusti Ketut Adi Putra told the demonstrators officials would visit the convicts “within one or two weeks” to ask for written statements explaining whether they wanted to die.