Reuters, October 21, 2003
Indonesia jails activist for Aceh ballot call
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Oct. 21 — A human rights activist was jailed for 11 years in
Indonesia on Tuesday for her calls for an independence vote for war-torn Aceh
province.
Judges at the same court later in the day slapped lengthy jail terms on three
separatist rebel negotiators arrested after the imposition of martial law in the province
on the northern tip of Sumatra island earlier this year.
Aceh District Court judges said activist Cut Nur Asikin, 47, was found guilty of treason
and spreading hatred through a series of public speeches.
But clad in a white Muslim headscarf, she reacted defiantly to the verdict, shouting:
''Long live Aceh! Allah destroy Indonesia!''
Judges linked the verdict to a meeting in November 1999 at a local university where
she called for a vote on independence in Aceh.
''The defendant has been found legally and convincingly guilty of being involved in
treason,'' presiding judge Hamdan Hasibuan told the court in the provincial capital of
Banda Aceh, about 1,700 km (1,000 miles) northwest of Jakarta.
Later on Tuesday judges sentenced three negotiators from the separatist Free Aceh
Movement (GAM) to jail terms for involvement in terror crimes and treason.
Teuku Muhammad Bin Usman, Amni Bin Ahmad Marzuki and Sofyan Ibrahim Tiba
were handed 13, 12 and 15 years in jail respectively.
Indonesia placed the resource-rich territory under martial law in May and launched a
military operation to crush GAM after the collapse of peace talks.
The talks were aimed at ending decades-old conflict that has killed more than 10,000
people since 1976. Police arrested several GAM negotiators soon after martial law
was imposed.
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