Reply #21: Delays may have fueled sympathy for Bali bombers [View All]

[Coventina]

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jarSVzHp6A3bt3xlvhsZ0Bmv8EIwD94C2T1G2

TENGGULUN, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia mishandled the Bali bomber case, enabling three death-row inmates to foment an image as Islamic martyrs and raising security concerns, experts said Monday.

The convicts urged retaliation for their pending deaths in countless TV interviews broadcast to a national audience before they were executed by firing squad early Sunday. Images of the men praying or meeting with relatives further fueled public sympathy.

But their executions are not believed to have heightened the terrorism threat in the world's most populous Muslim nation — still considered a potential target because fugitives of the Jemaah Islamiyah Southeast Asian terror network remain on the loose.

During five years of legal battles, Imam Samudra, 38, and brothers Amrozi Nurhasyim, 47, and Ali Ghufron, 48, admitted planning and assisting the Oct. 12, 2002, Bali nightclub attacks — allegedly funded by al-Qaida and carried out by Jemaah Islamiyah.