Imam Samudra ( ar, الإمام سامودرة, al-Imām Sāmūdirah, 14 January 1970 – 9 November 2008), also known as Abdul Aziz, Qudama/Kudama, Fatih/Fat, Abu Umar or Heri, was an Indonesian terrorist who was convicted and executed for his role in carrying out the Christmas Eve 2000 Indonesia bombings and

2002 Bali bombings The 2002 Bali bombings occurred on 12 October 2002 in the tourist district of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali. The attack killed 202 people (including 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians, 23 Britons, and people of more than 20 other nationalit ...

. Samudra, together with Huda bin Abdul Haq (known as Muklas) and

Amrozi bin Nurhasyim Ali Amrozi bin Haji Nurhasyim ( ar, علي عمرازي بن حجي نورهاشم, ʿAlī ʿAmrāzī bin Ḥajī Nūr Hāshim, 5 July 1962 – 9 November 2008) was an Indonesian terrorist who was convicted and executed for his role in carrying ...

(known as Amrozi) were executed together for their part in coordinating and carrying out the Bali bombings.

Early life

Samudra was born as Abdul Aziz in Serang, Banten (then part of West Java province), he was raised by a single mother as one of 12 children. Samudra graduated from an Islamic school. He left home in 1990 and did not return for a decade - and then only for a few hours before disappearing again, according to his mother. He went to Malaysia and taught at a religious school in the south of the country in the early 1990s. Indonesian authorities say the school was run by the suspected leaders of the militant Jemaah Islamiah group - Abu Bakar Ba'aysir, the group's spiritual leader, and Riduan Isamuddin, also known as Hambali.

Bali bombings

On 12 October 2002 two bombs exploded in the Kuta tourist strip on the Indonesian island of

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...

, Indonesia. One hit Paddy's Irish Bar, and the second exploded in a van outside the nearby Sari club. A total of 202 people died as a result. A third bomb exploded near Bali's US consulate, but no one was hurt. Arrested on 21 November 2002, Samudra was about to board a ferry for

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

. Police believe he was the planner or "field commander" of the Bali operation. Explaining his motives for the bombing to documentarian from prison, Samudra stated (translated into English by Haryanto): .

Trial

Samudra went on trial on 2 June 2003 and testified on 16 July 2003:

Sentence and execution

On 10 September 2003, he was found guilty for his role in the Bali bombing and sentenced to the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

to be executed by firing squad. Originally incarcerated in Denpasar's

Kerobokan Prison Kerobokan Penitentiary Institution ( id, Lembaga Pemasyarakatan Kerobokan, also known as LP Kerobokan, Kerobokan Prison or Hotel K) is a prison located in Kerobokan, Badung Regency, on the Indonesian island of Bali. Located 4 km (2.49 mil ...

, he was moved to the high-security prison island of

Nusakambangan Nusa Kambangan (also Nusakambangan, Kambangan island, or Nusa Kambangan Island) island is located in Indonesia, separated by a narrow strait from the south coast of Java; the closest port is Cilacap in Central Java province. It known as the plac ...

. On 20 November he lodged an appeal against his sentence. Together with the two other bombers who received death sentences, he launched a constitutional challenge against the use of firing squads. Samudra and the two other bombers preferred beheading, saying that it was a more Islamic form of execution. Despite an initial decision by Muklas, Amrozi and Imam Samudr to not seek a

Presidential President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese fu ...

pardon, on 21 August 2006, Muklas and his co-conspirators authorised their lawyers to file a last appeal which was lodged on 7 December on the basis of retroactive legislation. On 25 September 2008, the

Supreme Court of Indonesia The Supreme Court of the Republic of Indonesia ( id, Mahkamah Agung Republik Indonesia) is the independent judicial arm of the state. It maintains a system of courts and sits above the other courts and is the final court of appeal. It can also ...

rejected the final appeals of Imam Samudra and Mukhlas; having dismissed Amrozi's appeal earlier that month. 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 execution was 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. However, no representative from Samudra's family were in attendance. Samudra, along with Amrozi and Huda bin Abdul Haq were executed by firing squad at 00:15 local time on 9 November 2008.

Published works

From his cell, he wrote an

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

titled ''I Fight Terrorists'' (''Aku Melawan Teroris'' in Indonesian), where the "terrorists" are the Americans. It went on sale for 3, on a run of 5,000 copies. In 2004, '' CNN'' described the book as a "bestseller in Indonesia".

References

External links

Death row bomber plotted new attack on smuggled laptop
equires login {{DEFAULTSORT:Samudra, Imam 1970 births 2008 deaths Jemaah Islamiyah Abdul Aziz Terrorism in Indonesia 21st-century executions by Indonesia Sundanese people Executed Indonesian people People executed by Indonesia by firing squad Deaths by firearm in Indonesia Executed mass murderers Indonesian imams Indonesian mass murderers Indonesian Muslims Islamist mass murderers 2002 Bali bombings Inmates of Nusa Kambangan prison Indonesian people convicted of murder People convicted of murder by Indonesia