THE three Bali bombers on death row have 30 days to lodge an appeal for presidential clemency or their executions will be carried out.

Imam Samudra, Amrozi and Ali Ghufron played key roles in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.

The trio were to receive copies of a Supreme Court rejection of their demand for a case review yesterday at their jail on Nusakambangan island off the south coast of Central Java, AH Ritonga, a junior state prosecutor, said.

"We are going to submit the copies of the case review verdict today to Cilacap,'' he said yesterday, referring to the district where the jail is.

"We will count 30 days starting from the moment they receive the copy'' until when their executions may take place, if they do not submit a request for clemency, he said.

Timings and locations of executions in Indonesia, which take place by firing squad, are kept secret, though officials have said they would not take place on the island of Bali.

Meanwhile, a lawyer for the three inmates, Achmad Michdan, said he would complain over the way the Supreme Court considered the case review.

"Presidential clemency is not our concern for the time being, as we are now focusing instead on a complaint letter about the due processes of law being followed over the case review,'' he said.

"There was no appropriate process followed as required by Indonesian rule of law. We want the judges who worked on this to be examined,'' he said.

He said he would submit the letter as soon as he received a copy of the verdict.

"It might postpone the executions,'' he said.

Mr Ritonga said such a complaint would not derail the schedule.

"The complaint is not ... a legal move. Only a legal step can postpone an execution, which would be presidential clemency, or a case review,'' he said.

Asked about this, Mr Michdan said: "It should be considered a legal move.''

He said a second case review could not be filed as the Supreme Court had already ruled this out as an option.

The 2002 bombings were blamed on the militant Jemaah Islamiah (JI) network and the three men admitted during trial that they were JI members.

JI is blamed for a series of bombing attacks in Indonesia and other South-East Asian countries but the Bali attacks were the most deadly.

News Limited

Bali bombers lawyer quits

A LAWYER for the three death row Bali bombers has withdrawn himself from their last-ditch legal appeal, signalling the possible end to the case which delayed their executions.

Lawyer Fahmi Bachmid formally withdrew from the appeal in Denpasar District Court yesterday, after a protracted bid to have the appeal held in Cilacap District Court, off central Java, closer to their island prison.

Denpasar District Court has also rejected repeated requests that the three be allowed to travel to Bali to attend their final appeal.

The court is holding three separate judicial review hearings, one for each of the three terrorists, the so-called smiling assassin Amrozi Nurhasyim, his brother Ali Ghufron (alias Mukhlas) and Imam Samudra.

The trio played key roles in the Bali nightclub bombings on October 12, 2002, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

The judicial case reviews have delayed the impending executions of the men, none of whom were present in court yesterday.

Mr Bachmid presented a letter to Denpasar District Court formally objecting to the decision not to move the hearing or bring the convicted terrorists to the Bali court.

"We really object to the judges decision," Mr Bachmid said. "The reasons are really unreasonable according to the existing law."

But Chief Judge Ida Bagus Putu Madeg said the judges retained their same position.

"The judges still reject the request from the appealer," he told the court hearing Samudra's case.

Mr Bachmid then thanked the judges, but said he had no alternative but to withdraw from the case.

"I will give it (the case) back to Amrozi, Samudra and Ali Ghufron, whether to continue with the judicial review or not" he said.

Outside the court, an angry Mr Bachmid said the trio must now send a formal letter if they want to formally withdraw the appeal.

"I leave it all to them because their rights have been amputated by the judges," Mr Bachmid said.

"The convicted haven't withdrawn it yet.

"The convicted haven't but we are withdrawing we don't want to be blamed (for its failure)."

Outside the court, prosecutor Olopam Nainggolan said lawyers were waiting to see what would happen next.

"We are just ready but there should not be a third judicial review, right?"

The bombers had originally been due to be executed in 2006. But their executions were halted after they applied for a judicial review of their cases.

Their lawyers walked out of their earlier judicial review hearing in protest over a legal decision and it was later rejected.

The men had faced imminent execution until this latest appeal.