| Submit your comments on this article |
| Southeast Asia |
| Prosecutors seek five years jail for Maluku separatist leaders |
| 2002-12-21 |
| Prosecutors Thursday sought a five-year prison term for two leaders of the Maluku Sovereignty Front, AFP reported. The defendants, Alex Manuputty and Samuel "Sammy" Waileruny, were charged with subversion for setting up an illegal organisation and raising the banned flag of the Republic of South Maluku. Both men carried out "an act of subversion with the intention of dividing the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia," chief prosecutor Herman Kudubun told the North Jakarta district court. Independence supporters declared a republic in the Malukus in 1950 and staged a revolt against newly-independent Indonesia. The rebellion was suppressed but activists, mainly in the Netherlands, launched a failed campaign for international recognition. Five years for these guys, who never amounted to squat, and a year for Thalib, who's a first-class bad guy. Couldn't be because he's an Islamist bad guy... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |