The Islamic militants who bombed two Bali nightclubs in 2002 will be executed before the end of the year after an Indonesian court today rejected their appeal that they be beheaded instead of shot by a firing squad.

Amrozi Nurhashyim, Ali Gufron and Imam Samudra argued that the conventional Indonesian method of execution – shooting through the heart with rifles fired from close range – amounted to a form of torture. They presented witnesses who described the agonies suffered by the victims of Indonesian firing squads and argued that beheading was both less painful and more Islamic in character.

But the country’s Constitutional Court ruled that no form of execution, be it decapitation, lethal injection, electrocution or hanging, was certain to be without pain. “The reasons given are baseless and have to be rejected,” the head of the court, Mohammad Mahfud, said in Jakarta. “There is no method which can guarantee there will be no pain in the implementation [because] all have the risk of inaccuracy in the implementation . . . The pain death convicts endure is a logical consequence inherent in a death process ... so it is not categorised as torture.”

Two hundred and two people, including 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians and 24 Britons, died in the three explosions in the resort town of Kuta six years ago this month. They were carried out by an Indonesian cell of a south-east Asian militant group known as Jemaah Islamiyah.

None of the three bombers, who were sentenced to death in 2003, have ever expressed any regret for the attack, except to say that they are sorry there were Muslim victims.

Imam Samudra, known as the “smiling bomber” said earlier this month: “I don’t ask for forgiveness from infidels, I only ask for forgiveness from Muslims.”

They have never asked for clemency and spoken proudly of their wish to die as martyrs. But their lawyers have repeatedly attempted to delay the execution whenever it has appeared imminent.

The defence lawyer for the three, Wirawan Adnan, said that he would recommend that their families appeal for a judicial review of the sentence.

The government has said that it will be carried out by the end of this year and the office of the Attorney-General promised an announcement of the date of the sentence by Friday.

Times Recommends

• 'Radio Rancid' is scourge of Obama
• French gulp as global warming alters wines
• Colton, the barefoot boy bandit, outfoxes sheriffs