The Jakarta Post, 22 March 2007
20 years for mastermind of beheadings in Poso
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A panel of judges at a Jakarta court has found three militants guilty of masterminding
and carrying out the beheading of three Christian schoolgirls in Poso, Central
Sulawesi, in 2005.
Judges at the Central Jakarta District Court handed down a 20-year jail term
Wednesday for Hasanuddin and 14-year terms each for his accomplices, Lilik
Purnomo and Irwanto Irano.
Presiding judge Binsar Siregar said in his verdict that Hasanuddin came up with the
beheading plan as part of a campaign to avenge the deaths of Muslims in the
sectarian conflict in the region.
The judge said Hasanuddin ordered the slayings and later helped take the girls' heads
to three Christian-dominated villages.
Purnomo and Irano were guilty of "ambushing and beheading" the teens, he said.
Hasanuddin earlier described the murder as an Idul Fitri gift to Muslims.
"What the defendant did has created fear not only among the people of Poso, but also
the people of this country in general, even the international community," Siregar said
in court.
The judge added that the grisly murder had contributed to igniting fresh violence in the
province after a brief period of calm.
The three militants faced a maximum penalty of death by firing squad, but the judges
ruled that they deserved some leniency for cooperating with authorities, confessing
and showing remorse.
It was not immediately clear whether the three defendants would appeal the verdict.
The three high school students, identified as Yarni Sambue, 15, Interesia Morangke,
16, and Alfita Paulina, 19, were decapitated on Oct. 29, 2005, as Muslims in Poso
prepared to celebrate the Idul Fitri holiday.
The girls' bodies were left at the site of the attack near a cocoa plantation while their
heads were found at separate locations. One was left near a church.
Central Sulewesi experienced religious strife between 2000 and 2002 that killed some
1,000 people.
The conflict ended in early 2002 following a truce mediated by a government team led
by Jusuf Kalla, who was the welfare minister at the time.
But tension flared again after the 2005 beheadings and again in September 2006,
following the execution of three Roman Catholic militants convicted of leading an
attack on an Islamic school in 2000 that killed as many as 70 people.
A number of attacks in the region have been blamed on a group that has links with the
Jamaah Islamiyah terrorist network.
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