Imam Samudra

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 Islamiyah group - Abu Bakar Ba'aysir, the group's spiritual leader, and Riduan Isamuddin, also known as Hambali.

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: Despite an initial decision by Muklas, Amrozi and Imam Samudr to not seek a Presidential 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 rejected the final appeals of Imam Samudra and Mukhlas; having dismissed Amrozi's appeal earlier that month. 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.

Samudra, along with Amrozi and Huda bin Abdul Haq were executed by firing squad at 00:15 on 9 November 2008.

Published works From his cell, he wrote an autobiography 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".