Prominent Papuan independence leader Benny Wenda has been named on an Interpol wanted list, in a move labeled as political by legal campaigners.
According to his Web site, Wenda, who lives in Oxford, England, was granted political asylum by the British Government following his escape from custody while on trial in West Papua.
The BBC reported on Friday that Interpol issued Wenda a red notice after a request by Papua Police.
A red notice seeks the arrest of the person in question with a view to extradition to the country where the crime is alleged to have taken place.
“When I saw this it really made me scared,” Mr Wenda told BBC News. “This is Indonesia watching me, even here. That was shocking me you know,” he said.
Charles Foster, a lawyer representing Wenda, said the notice was an attempt to halt the activist’s calls for independence.
“It’s plainly affecting his ability to go around the world, doing the job which he set himself and his people have set him, which is saying to Indonesia ‘you have an obligation to have a free and fair election in West Papua and that the continued annexation of West Papua, Indonesia, is illegal under international law’,” he told the BBC.
Indonesian Embassy official Billy Wibisono told the BCC that Wenda to a “clandestine organization dedicated to secede from Indonesia using any means available to them.”
He was wanted for murder and arson relating to an attack on the Abepura Police headquarters on Dec. 7, 2000, in which six officers and civillians died.
Billy said the notice would be withdrawn if Wenda “can prove his innocence in our court of law.”