ASSOCIATED PRESS, Tuesday January 28, 2003 6:38 AM ET
Christian separatists sentenced to three years' jail in Indonesia
JAKARTA, Indonesia - A court Tuesday sentenced two Christian separatist leaders in
absentia to three years in jail for plotting a rebellion in Indonesia's religiously divided
Maluku province.
Judge I Wayan Padang passed down the verdict on Alex Manuputty and Samuel
Waileruny despite protests from their defense team, who argued the trial should be
postponed because their clients were not present.
Padang said the two men were guilty of undermining the state through their struggle
to set up an independent country in the eastern province, where three years of fighting
between Muslims and Christians have killed at least 9,000 people.
The trial has been seen as an effort by authorities in Jakarta to hold Christian and
Muslim extremists equally accountable for the sectarian clashes, which continue
sporadically despite a peace deal last year.
Muslim militia leader Jafar Umar Thalib is due to be sentenced later this week on
charges of inciting violence in the province.
Manuputty and Waileruny were arrested in Ambon, the Maluku capital, on April 17,
2002 after encouraging their followers to hoist banned separatist flags.
Manuputty heads the small and poorly supported Maluku Sovereignty Front. The
group wants Jakarta to allow a referendum on self-determination akin to a
U.N.-supervised plebiscite held in East Timor (news - web sites) in 1999. It insists
that the Malukus, 2,600 kilometers (1,600 miles) east of Jakarta, should not be part of
Indonesia.
The two men were released from detention in Jakarta on Dec. 28 and returned home
to Ambon, claiming that the state should pay for their living expenses in the capital
while they awaited their verdict.
The court is expected to send a warrant to prosecutors in Ambon, who in turn will
have the job of arresting the two.
Manuputty told The Associated Press via telephone from Ambon that neither
prosecutors or police had informed him of the court's verdict. He said he would not
turn himself in.
"I will resist the verdict in a nonviolent way," he said without elaborating.
Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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