Three militants awaiting trial for their alleged role in last year’s Bali bombings said Wednesday they considered themselves martyrs and are ready to die.
Abdul Aziz, 30, Anif Solchahudin, 24, and Muhammad Cholily, 28, made the comments as they were transferred from a detention center to the prosecutor’s office ahead of their trial.
They are accused of sheltering Noordin Top, an alleged leader of the al-Qaida-linked terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, ahead of the Oct. 1, 2005 suicide bombings on the resort island of Bali that killed 20 people.
Noordin, a Malaysian national who remains on the run, allegedly planned the attack and several others in Indonesia in recent years.
“I am ready (to die) if my destiny says I have to die,” Aziz, who has admitted to helping hide Noordin, told reporters.
“My life and my death are in the hands of God,” Cholily said.
No date has been set for their trial, but the decision to move the three to the prosecutor’s office means it will likely be soon. They will be charged under laws that carry a possible death penalty.