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CILACAP, Central Java - Indonesia's government has been urged to stand firm in the face of death threats and execute the Bali bombers swiftly, or risk losing credibility in its fight against terrorism.
Speculation has been rife about the timing of the executions, the reason for rumoured delays
and even what the three Islamic militants responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings have been doing as they await their deaths at their prison on Nusakambangan Island, Central Java.
As heavy rain hit the island overnight, Indonesian media reported that Imam Samudra and brothers Amrozi and Mukhlas will be executed imminently near a disused prison at Nirbaya hill.
Rubber and coconut farmers who usually frequent the site have been told to stay away.
Television station TV One showed footage of three wooden posts erected at the jungle site, to which the three men will be secured and simultaneously shot by separate firing squads.
TV One also showed footage apparently taken by a hidden camera inside the isolation block at Batu Prison where the bombers have been held in separate cells since last Friday.
They appeared relaxed and in good spirits, smiling as they emerged from their cells to wander around a common exercise yard.
They are reportedly impatient to become martyrs for the Islamic utopia they dream of creating across South-East Asia.
For this reason, relatives of British victims of the attack, that killed 202 people including 88 Australians and 28 Britons, have made a last-ditch plea to have the trio locked up for life rather than executed.
"It is likely that these men will be seen as martyrs by many of their sympathisers and thus their execution will be a propaganda coup for the jihadist cause," the UK Bali Bombings Victims Group, which represents 26 British families, said in a statement.
However, former Indonesian National Human Rights commissioner Sholahuddin Wahid said the executions must be carried out sooner rather than later.
"This slow execution is a sign the government is not being strict in combating terrorism and law enforcement in Indonesia," Sholahuddin told Indonesia's TV One network.
"If this execution is postponed again, the governments credibility will decrease."
Terror expert Rohan Gunaratna, of Singapore's International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, said further delays were not an option for the government.
"The government should be strong (and) carry out the executions," Gunaratna told AAP.
"I don't think threats or attacks should prevent Indonesia from carrying out the executions.
"Not to do so would be a huge mistake ... it would be a big victory for the terrorists."
Security has been tightened across the country amid fears of reprisal, with the bombers publicly warning their supporters will seek revenge for their deaths.
Following bomb threats this week against the Australian and US embassies in Jakarta, police are investigating another anonymous threat against the main fuel depot in North Jakarta, news website detik.com reported.
This is the same depot targeted in a bomb plot uncovered by police last month.
Additional security has been given to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono after a threat to his life in the form of a letter purportedly penned by the bombers and posted on an Islamist website.
Meanwhile, the bombers' relatives continue their efforts to halt the executions and small groups of Islamic extremists have gathered at Amrozi and Mukhlas' home village threatening violence if they go ahead.
Samudras' mother Embay Badriah has written to Yudhoyono, but refused to disclose the contents of her letter, saying only that her son was not a terrorist but a global warrior, Antara reported.
Amrozi's family has reportedly prepared a special committee to greet the convicted terrorists body whenever it is brought back to his East Java birthplace by helicopter.
- AAP
