Bali bombing memorial

A lawyer for three Islamic militants convicted for their role in the 2002 Bali bombings says the mode of their upcoming execution violates Islamic law.

Their lawyer, Achmad Michdan, says the men prefer to be executed by beheading rather than firing squad, which is Indonesia's normal mode of execution.

The men are scheduled to be executed in the next few weeks unless they take advantage of a 30-day period to request presidential clemency. They have already indicated that they will not ask President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to grant them a lighter sentence.

The men's lawyer and family members were on a prison visit Monday on Nusakambangan island, off southern coast of Java.

The three men say they carried out the attacks to punish the United States and its allies for alleged atrocities in Afghanistan.

Indonesia's Supreme Court rejected their final appeal in September. Their lawyers say the convictions were illegal because they are based on anti-terrorism laws passed after the bombings occurred.

The 2002 Bali blasts killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists.

Those attacks, as well as deadly bomb attacks in 2004 and 2005, have been blamed on members of Jemaah Islamiyah. The Islamic militant group has been linked to the al-Qaida terrorist network.

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.