Channel NewsAsia, 10 November 2003 1304 hrs
Asia Pacific News
Maluku pro-independence leaders freed on expiry of detention
warrants
JAKARTA, : Two Indonesian separatist leaders who had been held in jail pending an
appeal against jail terms for subversion have been released after detention warrants
expired, a report said Monday.
Alexander Hermanus Manuputty, head of the Maluku Sovereignty Front, and another
leader Samuel Waeleruny left Tanggerang jail near Jakarta early Saturday, the
Kompas newspaper said.
An appeal court sentenced the two to four years in jail for subversion, adding a year to
the three-year sentence passed by a lower court earlier this year.
The two are appealing to the Supreme Court.
Kompas said the detention warrant expired at midnight last Thursday.
Under Indonesian law, jail sentences do not necessarily have to be served until all
appeals are exhausted. But judges can order the detention of defendants during the
appeal process.
The head of Tanggerang jail, Didin Sudirman, could not be reached for comment and
his staff declined comment.
Following the end of Dutch colonial rule, separatists proclaimed a Republic of South
Maluku in the eastern island chain in 1950 and staged a revolt against newly
independent Indonesia.
The rebellion was suppressed but activists, mainly in the Netherlands, pursued a
failed campaign for international recognition. Supporters of the Maluku Sovereignty
Front are mainly Christians.
Manuputty and Waeleruny had been arrested in Ambon in April last year after
encouraging their followers to hoist separatist flags.
The independence movement is not believed to have widespread support among
Christians in Maluku. But the government, which faces more serious separatist unrest
in Aceh and Papua, is determined to crack down on any independence moves.
- AFP
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