Poso trio renews clemency request
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Palu, August 29, 2006

Three Christian militants facing execution in Central Sulawesi for leading a mob that killed Muslims have made a fresh appeal for presidential clemency, their lawyers and a presidential spokesman said Monday.
The office of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono received a letter from the trio -- Fabianus Tibo, Marianus Riwu and Dominggus Silva -- presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng was quoted by Reuters as saying.
One of the men's lawyers, Roy Rening, said the men had submitted their second clemency request "because their trials were full of fabrications".
Roy was speaking while visiting the Palu prison, where the three were being held in isolation.
The law allows death-row convicts to seek a second clemency a minimum of two years after the first request is rejected by the president.
Yudhoyono rejected the men's appeals for a pardon last year. There has been no indication that he will intervene this time.
The three men had been due to face a firing squad on Aug. 12 at a secret location in Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi province.
They were given an eleventh-hour reprieve. Officials said they wanted to concentrate on preparations for the Aug. 17 Independence Day celebrations.
The delay came after demonstrations against the planned executions by thousands of Indonesians, and a plea by Pope Benedict XVI for President Yudhoyono to spare the trio's lives.
No new date for the execution has been made public, but officials have said the death sentence will be carried out.
The lawyers demanded that the trio be allowed to see visitors. "The isolation is killing them because the three are not permitted to meet their families, lawyers and spiritual leaders," Roy said.
Fierce battles between Christians and Muslims in 2000 and 2001 left some 1,000 people of both religions dead, mostly in Poso. Few people have been brought to justice from either side.
Three Muslim militants were also scheduled for execution earlier this month for their roles in the 2002 Bali bombings, but their sentence was not carried out because lawyers said they were filing a final appeal.
Some analysts have said the government of this predominantly Muslim nation is wavering because it does not want to risk public anger by executing the Bali bombers -- Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, Ali Gufron and Imam Samudra -- before the Christians.
"People were asking, 'Why Amrozi first, and not Tibo?'," Muhammad Mahendratta, an attorney for the Muslim militants, said as quoted by AP.
"For me, it is a simple matter: just follow the death row queue," he said. "Tibo and his friends got convicted first, and they should be executed first."