Ali Amrozi bin Haji Nurhasyim (also known as Amrozi) (5 July 1962 – 9 November 2008) was an Indonesian executed for his part in the 2002 Bali bombings.
He was a native of Lamongan, East Java and was the fifth of 13 children. He attended the Al-Mukmin Islamic school founded by Abu Bakar Bashir along with his brothers Mukhlas and Ali Imron. Amrozi was born in Tenggulun, East Java in 1962. His family were strictly religious, following the Wahhabist school of Islam which has its roots in Saudi Arabia. Amrozis' grandfather established the first pesantren or Islamic boarding school in Tenggulun. His father Nur Hasyim taught his sons that Javanese customs were considered heresy under Islamic law and were therefore to be eradicated. Nur Hasyim was involved in the Indonesian independence struggle against the Dutch, often regailing his sons with tales of heroism by his fellow Muslims. Amrozi displayed little interest in school or religious studies. Police psychiatric reports undertaken after the Bali bombings describe him as "simple" and "shallow" and report that he was easily influenced by others. They describe him as having an immature personality and lower than normal intellectual capacity. Amrozis' brother, Ali Imron, reported that Amrozi was continually in trouble at school and at home, being banned and expelled by teachers and stealing items from his own home and selling them. He only made it to the second year of high school. At the age of 23 Amrozi married for the first time. He married a local girl. The marriage lasted only two years, producing a daughter. He attempted high school again but dropped out soon after. Seemingly without purpose and lacking direction he began vandalising Javanese graves in his village in an apparent attempt to gain approval from his strictly religious and respected father. He mortified his parents by desecrating the grave of a respected village elder, subsequently spending a week in police custody. Amrozis'elder brother Muklas was a respected member of a pesantren in Malaysia. Amrozi had not seen him for over ten years. He had been a stabilising influence to some degree in Amrozis' early adult years. Amrozi decided to visit Muklas but was initially shunned and rejected because of his errant ways. He was devastated by this and realised that to become accepted he needed to become a good Muslim. Amrozi ceased smoking and watching movies. He began praying five times a day in his efforts to gain the acceptance of Muklas. Muklas finally agreed to let him stay. Amrozi was talented with his hands and became the local repairman, fixing cars and mobile phones. By trade he became a mechanic and owned the van used in the Sari Club bombing. It was Amrozi who purchased the explosives.
2002 Bali bombing and trial
His two brothers Ali Ghufron (aka Mukhlas) and Ali Imron were also both involved in the 2002 Bali bombings. Mukhlas is suspected of converting Amrozi to militancy when the two were reunited in Malaysia in the late 1980s. Both of his brothers were also taken into police custody, and Mukhlas was executed with him.
Amrozi was allegedly motivated by his view of American foreign policy, which he deemed to have an imperialist agenda toward the Islamic world.
In an interview with the chief of investigations, General I Made Mangku Pastika, when asked about Amrozi's feelings toward the attack said:
“ "There is no regret at all for him [Amrozi]. Doing his duty to God, he shows no regret. He's very calm, very cool... proud of his activities." About the fact that most of the Westerners who died were Australians rather than the Americans that Amrozi has stated he was targeting, Mr Pastika stated, "He doesn't regret it but he is just unhappy" ”
Amrozi's seemingly nonchalant demeanour throughout his trial earned him nicknames such as "The Smiling Assassin", "The Smiling Bomber" and "The Laughing Bomber".
At the time of the bombing Bali was more popular as a tourist destination for Australians than it was for Americans.
Sentence and execution
On 7 August 2003, he was found guilty for his role in the Bali bombing and sentenced to death by firing squad. His execution was delayed for 5 years, due to legal technicalities: the law under which he was convicted was not in effect at the time of the bombing, and was ruled illegal by the Indonesian high court in July 2004. Originally incarcerated in Denpasar's prison, he was moved to the high-security prison island of Nusakambangan in October 2005. While in prison, on 12 May 2008, he re-married his first wife, Rahma, in a ceremony which was conducted in his absence in his home village, while remaining married to his current wife.
Together with the two other bombers (Imam Samudra and his brother, Mukhlas) who received death sentences, he launched a constitutional challenge against the use of firing squads. Amrozi preferred beheading. In October 2008 he remained unrepentant and claimed revenge would be taken for his death.
During the month, his final appeals were rejected and the Attorney General's office announced that he would be executed by firing squad in early November 2008. According to a source in Indonesia's Attorney General Office, the executions were to be done before the end of Sunday, 9 November 2008. This was reportedly delayed from the original plan to allow a representative from the family to identify the body post-execution. From Amrozi's family, his younger brother, Ali Fauzi was sent as a representative of his family.
Amrozi, along with Imam Samudra and Huda bin Abdul Haq were shot on 00.15 local time on 9 November 2008. They were executed by firing squad. Despite his carefree demeanor throughout his trial and incarceration, he was reported to have been pale faced and shaking in the moments before his execution.
Just take a look at the case of one of the terrorists involved in the 2002 Bali Bombings, Amrozi A.K.A The Smiling Assassin:
12 October 2002 = Two bombs explode in the Kuta tourist strip on the Indonesian island of Bali. One hits Paddy's Irish Bar, and the second explodes in a van outside the nearby Sari club. A total of 202 people die as a result. A third bomb explodes near Bali's US consulate, but no one is hurt.
7 November 2002 = Indonesian police arrest the first suspect for the Bali bomb blasts, a mechanic called Amrozi bin Nurhasyim. Under questioning, he admits to playing a role in the attacks.
12 May 2003 = Amrozi goes on trial, charged with helping plan the attacks, as well as with buying the explosives and owning the van used in the bombings.
11 June 2003 = Appearing at Amrozi's trial, one of the Bali Bombers, Imam Samudra denies playing a direct role in the attacks, but says he could be "morally responsible".
30 June 2003 = Police catch another key Bali suspect, Idris - who is alleged to have organized accommodation and financed the attack. Prosecutors also announce that they are seeking the death penalty against Amrozi.
14 July 2003 = Amrozi tells the court that the attack had "positive aspects", because it encouraged people to re-embrace religion and weakened the corrupting influence of foreign tourists.
7 August 2003 = Amrozi is found guilty of helping plan and carry out the attacks. He is sentenced to death.
25 September 2003 = Lawyers for Amrozi lodge appeal against his death sentence, in a process expected to take years to resolve.
7 January 2004 = The Supreme Court rejects Amrozi's appeal. His lawyers say they will now file a judicial review, a process which could take months.
20 October 2005 = Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra will not seek presidential pardons, prosecutors say, and are "ready to be executed anytime soon".
21 August 2006 = The executions of Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra are postponed after they authorize their lawyers to file a last appeal.
7 December 2006 = Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra launch a last-ditch appeal against the death sentences. Their lawyers say they plan to argue that the men were found guilty on the basis of retroactive legislation.
25 September 2007 = Indonesia's Supreme Court rejects the final appeals of Imam Samudra and Mukhlas. A court official says the men had provided no new evidence to challenge earlier verdicts. An appeal by Amrozi was rejected earlier in September.
6 August 2008 = Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra appeal against their death sentences at Indonesia's constitutional court. Their lawyers say shooting does not guarantee instant death and can thus be deemed torture. They say the men should die by beheading or lethal injection.
21 October 2008 = Indonesia's constitutional court rejects an attempt by Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra to change the method of their execution.
24 October 2008 = The Indonesian attorney-general's office says Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra will be executed in early November.
3 November 2008 = Lawyers for Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra file a new appeal, saying they had not been properly informed of the Supreme Court's rejection of an earlier appeal.
8 November 2008 = Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra are executed by firing squad on the island prison of Nusakambangan.
Bali bomber and smiling assassin Amrozi died a coward
Cindy Wockner in Cilicap
November 10, 2008 05:38am
AMROZI, the smiling assassin, was not so brave when faced with his own death. His older brother Mukhlas was more defiant and praised God to the end.
And when the time came to be shackled hand and foot and led from their jail cells to the execution ground, the three Bali bombers accepted their fate without struggle.
Sources inside Batu prison and involved in the execution of Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, Mukhlas, aka Ali Ghufron, and Imam Samudra, aka Abdul Aziz, yesterday revealed details of how the trio were put to death six years after their crimes.
One source said that of the three, Amrozi was the least brave and that as his end neared he looked "pale" and afraid.
He was also the quickest to die after all three were strapped to wooden posts and shot at the same time by firing squads.
His older brother Mukhlas was more defiant, repeatedly shouting "Allah Akbar" until his last moments. One source said that even as he was dying he praised God.
It was Amrozi who earned the contempt of Australians and the world when, after his arrest, he smiled for the cameras and took pride in the devastation caused.
When he was sentenced to death, he cheered and gave the thumbs up to judges, then to his victims' families.
The three men had known death was stalking them and, according to jail sources, seemed resigned to their fate.
At 11pm on Saturday, about 30 members of the paramilitary Brimob police, wearing balaclavas to hide their identity, went to the cells of the three men.
The three were shackled hand and feet, chains running from wrist to the ankle.
"They looked like they accepted their fate. They didn't struggle," one witness said.
As they were lead from their cells, their ankles were bound so tightly they had to shuffle.
The rest of the jail was quiet except for the bombers' exhortations of "Allah Akbar".
Other prisoners didn't join in. Several days earlier the bombers had said their goodbyes to prisoners and guards and asked for the traditional Muslim forgiveness.
"They were shouting but it was not really loud. The situation was quite calm. Not all three of them were shouting (Allah Akbar) at once. It was separately, one then the other," another source said.
The bombers had been praying all afternoon and when the officers came to collect them, Amrozi said he knew it was time. They had also been fasting.
They were taken out to waiting double-cab pick-up trucks. Each man was put in the second row of seats, in the middle and flanked by armed police on either side.
More police sat in the back of the truck.
The cars then drove off in procession to the execution zone of Nirbaya, about 3km south of the jail.
Amrozi was in the first car, followed by Imam Samudra in the second car and then Mukhlas.
It took longer than anticipated to reach the site because a torrential downpour earlier in the evening had made the narrow and windy track slippery and difficult to negotiate.
When they arrived at Nirbaya, the bombers were taken from the trucks and tied to posts. They were ministered to by three Muslim preachers who read to them from the Koran.
It is believed that Amrozi was tied to the middle post with Samudra to his left and Mukhlas to his right and that the men were standing up.
The Bali prosecutor, Ida Bagus Wiswantanu, proceeded to read out the execution order, detailing the men's crimes and their sentences.
Black hoods were put over their heads and at 12.15am the signal to shoot was given.
It was a dark night, the moon shrouded in cloud and there were no stars.
But the air was crisp and clean after the earlier monsoonal rain.
At 12.20am the doctor pronounced them dead and at 12.25am the three bodies were untied and taken to a nearby jail clinic for an autopsy.
Afterwards they were washed in the Muslim tradition by Ali Fauzi, the brother of Amrozi and Mukhlas, and the Muslim clerics.
At dawn the men's bodies were flown in police helicopters to their home villages in East and West Java for burial.
Clashes with police
Hundreds of emotional supporters of the Bali bombers clashed with police in Tenggulun yesterday as the bodies of two of them arrived at their home village.
Heavily armed police could not control the 500-strong crowd which surged around the ambulances carrying the bodies following their execution yesterday.
Clashes broke out and the police were driven off the road amid shouts of “Jihad!” and “Get out!”
There were similar scenes in the west Java town of Serang as Imam Samudra's body was paraded through the streets between his local mosque and graveyard, shrouded in a black cloth bearing a Koranic inscription in Arabic.
Members of a radical group headed by hardline cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, the co-founder of Jemaah Islamiah, who was jailed on a conspiracy charge related to the bombings before being released, pushed people aside to make way for the body.
Westerners in both villages were verbally abused as "infidels" and told to leave.
The three Bali bombers were executed on an Indonesian island for their lead roles in the 2002 nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
Earlier, the family of Mukhlas and his younger brother Amrozi said the bombers had been executed along with Imam Samudra just after midnight local time (4am AEDT) on Nusakambangan Island, in Central Java, where they had been jailed.
“Our family has received news of the execution ... May our brothers, God willing, be invited by green birds to heaven now,” Mohammad Chozin, a brother of Mukhlas and Amrozi, said in Tenggulun.
“We're now handling the preparations to bring the bodies back, which may take two hours,” he said outside an Islamic boarding school in the east Java village, as supporters shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greater).
Indonesia's Attorney General's Office yesterday morning confirmed the executions had taken place.
“At 12.15am, the convicts ... were executed by shooting and followed up with an autopsy,” spokesman Jasman Pandjaitan said.
“They have been stated as dead. At this moment the bodies are being washed by the family.”
The bombers were simultaneously shot through the heart by crack Indonesian troops assembled to carry out the task.
They were executed in an orchard some 6km from their prison on Nusakambangan Island, Indonesia's TV One reported.
A source at the prison said they shouted “Allahu Akbar” as they were escorted out of their isolation cells by paramilitary police shortly before their executions.
Australians expressed relief that the men were finally dead, six years after they brought carnage to Bali by sending suicide bombers to attack the Sari Club and nearby Paddy's Bar on October 12, 2002.
“... we've waited a very long time for this and this is our justice,” Sydney woman Maria Kotronakis, who lost two sisters and two cousins, told CNN, struggling at times to speak.
“Finally the moment has come ... we are over the moon.”
Survivor Peter Hughes, of Perth, who suffered horrific burns in the bombings, said the three militants had paid the highest price for mass murder, but their executions did not bring him any joy.
“These guys went to set about mass murder and paid the highest penalty,” he told CNN.
“It doesn't feel good but they did do the crime and they've paid for it.”
The bombers' bodies will soon be flown by helicopter to their home villages for burial within 24 hours, in accordance with Muslim custom.
In Tenggulun, sobbing mourners converged on the home of Amrozi and Mukhlas' mother.
Hardline cleric Abu Bakar Bashir – the co-founder of Jemaah Islamiah, the group blamed for the Bali bombings – praised the bombers as “holy warriors” during a visit to the village on Saturday.
Security forces are on high alert across the mainly Muslim country, after the bombers urged supporters to carry out revenge attacks if their executions went ahead.
Australian authorities have advised Australians to reconsider the need to travel to Indonesia.
The 2002 Bali attacks were the bloodiest in a sustained period of al-Qaeda-inspired jihadist violence in the world's most populous Muslim country.
Additional reporting by Komang Suriadi and Gita Anggun Athika
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