REUTERS, Tuesday January 28, 2003
Indonesia convicts Christian leader of subversion
JAKARTA, Jan 28 (Reuters) - An Indonesian court on Tuesday sentenced a Christian
leader from the Moluccas islands to three years in jail for subversion after he was
accused of trying to set up an independent state in the region, his lawyer said.
Alex Manuputty leads a faction of the little-known separatist movement, the South
Moluccas Republic. The Moluccas saw three years of conflict between Muslims and
Christians that killed 5,000 people before a peace deal agreed a year ago.
"This was an unfair sentence, and we will appeal," lawyer Sahara Pangaribuan told
Reuters after the hearing in Jakarta.
Pangaribuan said Manuputty was not present when the verdict was read out, but
added that he was in Jakarta. It was unclear if Manuputty would be allowed to remain
free pending an appeal.
Manuputty, who has denied any wrongdoing, was arrested last April shortly before his
followers planned to raise an independence flag in Ambon, the main city of the
Moluccas which lies some 2,300 km (1,400 miles) east of Jakarta.
The South Moluccas Republic, or RMS, was born in the 1950s with its call for
Moluccan independence. Experts on the Moluccas have estimated Manuputty's
faction at around 100 supporters spread throughout the island chain.
The sentence fell short of the five years demanded by prosecutors, the lawyer said.
Officials at the North Jakarta District Court were not immediately available to
comment.
Subversion carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
Indonesia's main separatist hotspots are Aceh province in the country's northwest and
Papua in the remote east.
Some 85 percent of Indonesia's 210 million people are Muslim. In some eastern
areas, however, the Christian and Muslim populations are about equal in size.
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