Bali bombers show no remorse pending executions

Nusakambangan: Three militants expected to be executed soon for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people said yesterday that they had no regrets.

Amrozi, Ali Gufron and Imam Samudra and several hundred fellow inmates held prayers on a field outside their prison to mark Eid Al Fitr and then spoke briefly to reporters in what were expected to be their last public comments.

They said the October 12, 2002 twin nightclub attacks on the resort island were meant to punish the United States and its allies. Most of those killed were foreign tourists, especially Australians.

"I don't have, and will never have, regrets," said Samudra. The others agreed and praised other attacks, including the bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, by militants that killed at least 54 people and wounded hundreds.

Australian Brian Deegan, whose son Josh died in the bombings, said the men have never shown signs of remorse.

"That evidently has not changed," Deegan said from Adelaide, Australia. "Their actions are abhorrent and despicable and misguided. They took away the lives of many men, women and children in a futile effort to make a point."

Appeals exhausted

Executions in Indonesia are by firing squad. The militants were convicted under Indonesia's strict anti-terrorism laws. They have exhausted their appeals and Indonesia's attorney general has said the sentence could be carried out any day now that the holy month of Ramadan, when clemency is often shown to criminals, is over.

The Bali attacks - allegedly funded by Al Qaida - were carried out by members of Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian militant group blamed for at least three other suicide bombings in Indonesia since then.