INDONESIA. SUPREME COURT RULES AGAINST POSO DEATH ROW PRISONERS

Indonesia’s Supreme Court turned down a second appeal by three Christian men sentenced to death for helping to incite sectarian conflict in Poso, Central Sulawesi, in 2000.
Speaking after the court's announcement, the men's lawyers said the ruling on the case review was "an insult to people's sense of justice", and threatened to take the case to the International Court of Justice in the Hague.
The team of justices hearing the review, Djoko Sarwoko, Marianna Sutadi, Timur P. Manurung, Arifin A. Tumpa and Paulus Effendi Lotulung, handed down a unanimous verdict after considering the case for less than a month.
Unless new evidence comes to light, convicts Fabianus Tibo, Dominggus Da Silva and Marinus Riwu have no further recourse for appeals in Indonesia and the decision when to execute them by firing squad now rests with government prosecutors.
Their other avenue for appeal - a plea for a pardon from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono - was rejected in late 2005.
Supreme Court justice Djoko said that under the country's legal system, a case review could be filed only once unless convincing new evidence came to light that could prove the defendants were innocent.
"Nevertheless, we did examine the (second) review just to make sure that we did nothing wrong when we decided the first time. We are convinced there was no new evidence to review the case," he said.
A lawyer for the three men, Patrialis Pieter, slammed the Supreme Court justices for "rigidly sticking to the formal procedures while ignoring the possibility that they would execute the wrong people".
"What if it later turns out that the real masterminds were somebody else after the three convicts have been executed," he said.