(Antaranews.com/Anang Budiono)
A panel of judges at the Jayapura District Court convicted five people of treason and sentenced them to three years imprisonment each.
They are Selfius Bobii, Agus Kraar, Dominikus Sorabut, Edison Waromi, and Forkorus Yoboisembut, who organized the third Papua People Congress in October last year and declared the West Papua Federation Nation, tempo.co reported Friday.
According to the panel of judges presided over by Jack Octovianus, their actions had jeopardized the unitary state of Indonesia.
Prosecution team leader Julius D. Teuf said they would not appeal the verdict even though the sentence was lower than the five-year prison term demanded.
On the other hand, the defendants’ lawyer Gustaf Kawer insisted his clients were innocent and that they had behaved democratically.
“The panel of judges has ignored the fact that the five men had obtained a permit from the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Ministry, Directorate General of Regional Autonomy at the Home Affairs Ministry and Papua Police to hold the event”, said Gustaf.
However Coordinating Legal, Political and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto had denied that he granted permission to the organizers of the event, which was resulted in a bloody police crackdown that claimed the lives of six congress participants and injured dozens of others.(iwa)
Comments:
Sikat Bersi, Ambon | Fri, 16/03/2012 - 18:03pm
The higher you build your barriers
The taller I become
The farther you take my rights away
The faster I will run
You can deny me
You can decide to turn your face away
No matter, cos there's something inside so strong....
Labi Siffre's song against racial discrimination is dedicated to the black people in Papua.