The family of two Islamist militants awaiting execution for the Bali bombings that killed 202 people said on Saturday paradise awaited them after the firing squads.
Muhammad Chozin, the 52-year-old elder brother of condemned jihadists Amrozi and Mukhlas, told Agence France-Presse in the bombers’ home village the family saw the looming execution as ”good news”.
”The family doesn’t feel burdened by the execution. In fact, we’re happy because it means God and the prophet have given good news,” Chozin said in the Islamic boarding school he runs in Tenggulun, a small East Java coastal village.
”If they die because they are standing up for the religion they will be placed in paradise,” he said.
Authorities have said the brothers and fellow bomber Imam Samudra could face the firing squad any time from Saturday until mid-November over the 2002 attack against Western tourists on the holiday island.
A source in the Nusakambangan island prison where the bombers are being held said they had been placed in isolation and notification had been delivered late on Friday clearing the way for the execution to go ahead.
Chozin said that although he supported his brothers he would discourage other family members from following their path of violence.
”If I find out then I will tell them the bigger priority in jihad [holy war] is education. If they have faith that their way or their [violent] action is correct, that is their right, I won’t blame them,” he said.
”The family isn’t angry with the brothers, we don’t want to meddle in their affairs. If they totally believe in their cause, then why not?”
The 70-year-old mother of the two bombers said on Friday night her sons were right to ”kill infidels”.
”I don’t cry. I leave it all to God,” Tariem said after returning from praying at the mosque.
”I feel that killing infidels isn’t a mistake because they don’t pray,” she said, sitting on the stone floor of the family home surrounded by Amrozi’s children and wife.
Hordes of journalists and camera crews have descended on the sleepy village of wooden houses and fields of maize and rice to wait out the executions, which are the first under Indonesia’s anti-terror laws.
An empty field in a neighbouring village a short motorcycle ride away from Tariem’s home has been set aside as a makeshift helipad, apparently to receive the bombers’ bodies.
Villagers said the freshly painted ”H” marking the clearing between rows of corn had appeared some time overnight or early in the morning.
Police said helicopters have been readied to carry the bombers’ bodies home after they are executed, probably in the prison grounds on the other side of Java island.
Lawyers for the bombers have launched a string of appeals to delay the death sentences being carried out, and said on Saturday they would launch a fresh, unspecified, legal bid to save the bombers’ lives. — AFP
