INDONESIA BALI BOMBER LOSES DEATH ROW APPEAL

the Indonesian Supreme Court rejected the final appeal of Amrozi bin Nurhasyim against his death sentence for his part in the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people. Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, currently in Sydney for APEC, will now decide whether or not to spare Amrozi and two of his accomplices on death row, who are also expected to have their appeals rejected. The decision to reject Amrozi's final appeal, known as a judicial review, was made at the end of last month. But it is only now that information leaked from a Supreme Court judge speaking to a local journalist. Amrozi's appeal was rejected because his argument was not considered to qualify as the sort of new evidence a judicial review requires. Amrozi's lawyer said it was “disturbing” that journalists were the first to know, not his client. Theoretically at least, barring the granting of some sort extraordinary appeal, which sometimes happens, only Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono now stands between Amrozi and death by firing squad.