Threats in Indonesia over Bali bomber executions

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian police were investigating on Tuesday threats to assassinate President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and to blow up the U.S. and Australian embassies if the Bali bombers are executed, a spokesman said.

Security has been increased across Indonesia in the last few days ahead of the expected executions of three Islamist militants sentenced to death for their role in attacks on two nightclubs in Bali in 2002 that killed 202 people.

Police were examining threats on a website contained in a letter purporting to be from the three Bali bombers calling for the death of the president, vice president and other government officials if the executions went ahead.

Earlier, police said a telephone text message had been sent threatening to blow up the U.S. and Australian embassies if the three militants were executed. No bombs were found after a search.

"We don't know who is behind this but this must have came from a group that is trying to stir up the situation," said Abubakar Nataprawira, the national police spokesman.

The threatening letter apparently signed by the three bombers -- Imam Samudra, Mukhlas and Amrozi -- was written in Indonesian, English and Arabic and was carried on the website www.foznawarabbilkakbah.com.

But police said it could not have come from the bombers because they were currently isolated in the maximum security prison on Nusakambangan island in central Java.

The Attorney General's office said last week that the execution by firing squad of the men, who have been on death row since 2003, was "very close".

Authorities have previously said that all legal avenues have been exhausted. A Supreme Court judge said on Monday that a new appeal filed by lawyers for relatives of the militants would not delay the sentence being carried out.