Court 'rejects Bali bomber Amrozi's appeal'

Jakarta, Sept. 7(AP): The Supreme Court rejected an appeal by an Islamic militant on death row for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, many of them foreign tourists, a judge said on Friday.

Lawyers for Amrozi Nurhasyim _ one of three men awaiting a firing squad for the twin nightclub attacks _ argued his conviction was illegal because it was based on an anti-terror law that was applied retroactively.

Djoko Sarwoko, a member of the Supreme Court's three-judge panel, said Nurhasyim's appeal had been rejected on Aug. 30.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has been hit by a string of terrorist attacks in recent years blamed on the al Qaida-linked militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, the first and most deadly being the Oct. 12, 2002 bombings on the resort island of Bali.

Nurhasyim, Ali Gufron and Imam Samudra were among more than 30 people convicted in those blasts. They confessed to partaking in the plot and initially accepted their death sentences, saying they wanted to die as martyrs.

But in July, they asked their lawyers to appeal, noting that the Constitutional Court ruled in mid-2004 that tough new laws _ passed after the Bali bombings _ could not be used in cases predating their adoption.

Decisions for Gufron and Samudra ``are still pending,'' Sarwoko said.

Arts in Bali expected to become international event

Denpasar (ANTARA News) - The 5th arts festival to be organized by the Cooperation Board of the Indonesian arts institutes in Bali was expected to become an international event as it would invite foreign participants.

A number of high learning institutes from Europe, Australia, the United States and Asian countries have expressed their readiness to take part in the event which was scheduled to take place from November 21 to 25, 2007, Rector of the Indonesian Arts Institute`s Denpasar chapter I Wayan Rai S said here Sunday.

Wayan said the organizing committee would next years invite foreign high learning institutioins to the festival as an effort to enhance cooperation and share arts knowledge with the participants.

The event was previously held in different areas in the country and participated in by only five state arts institutes and two private ones.

"We as the host of the festival have been making preparations for the upcoming event in the hope it would run successfully," Wayan said.

The expected success in holding the international festival would give a positive image to the Indonesian high learning institutions in the future, he said.

As part of the festival, the organizing committee was also expected to hold an international seminar featuring domestic and foreign arts and culture experts.

The festival would also feature a collaboration involving all the participating high learning institutes.

The collaboration was expected to create new colors and improve the quality of the respective arts institutes in the future, he said. (*)