|
Bali bomber to face firing squad1,2 - THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY Elementary
Bali bomber to face firing squad
Level 1 Elementary
©Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2003
Taken from the News section in
www.onestopenglish.com
Amrozi bin Nurhasyim
smiled at the five judges
in front of him in the
courtroom. He then
turned round and looked
at the hundreds of
cheering, clapping and
weeping people in the
public seats and gave
them the victory sign.
"Allahu Akbar [God is
most great]," he shouted.
Amrozi, a radical
Islamist, is a village car
mechanic from east
Java. The judges
decided that he was
guilty of taking part in
the bombing of two Bali
nightclubs last October.
Amrozi seemed happy
when he heard the
decision. The judges
sentenced him to death
for the murder of 202
people. When he was led
out of the courtroom he
was still smiling. People
shouted “Die, Amrozi!”
at him.
Survivors of the
bombing and relatives of
the people who died said
that they were not
surprised by his actions
in the courtroom. "He's
been doing it since the
very start." said Natalie
Juniardi, from Australia,
who lost her Balinese
husband, John, and two
of her staff when
Paddy's Bar and the Sari
Club in Kuta were
blown up on October 12.
Some relatives of the
people who died in the
explosion said they were
worried that the death
penalty would make
Amrozi a martyr. "This
might cause more
fundamentalism," said
Susanna Miller, whose
brother Dan died in the
bombing.
Amrozi has often said he
wanted to attack
America and its allies,
especially Israel. He also
said that he hoped
"whites" would die. He
was found guilty of
buying the vehicle used
in the main explosion.
He was also found guilty
of buying most of the
chemicals used to make
the bombs and helping
with other preparations
for the terrorist attack.
The judges called
Amrozi's actions
"extraordinary" and
"crimes against
humanity". They did not
accept his argument that
he was only a foot
soldier and that his
actions were justified by
his religion. "Islam
never teaches violence,
murder or any other
crime," the judges said.
"You never have the
right to kill other
people." They decided
that the attack had been
organised by Jemaah
Islamiyah (JI), the
Southeast Asian Islamist
terrorist group, which is
connected to al-Qaida.
The Guardian Weekly20-3-
08, page 2
|
|
|