Jakarta – A military tribunal in Indonesia's Papua province has jailed a soldier for eight months for his role in a shooting last month that left a student dead and two others wounded.

Police have already admitted that their officers and the military fired into a mob of about 100 protesters, but the circumstances surrounding the death of Moses Douw, 13, and two others have been in dispute.

Human rights activists have said Douw was a close relative of one of the 43 boat people who landed at Cape York last month in an outrigger that featured a large sign claiming military oppression in Papua.

They believe the three people who were shot were students ambushed on their way to school in what appeared to be an unprovoked attack. Australian politicians called for an investigation into the shooting of the teenagers.

The newspaper Kompas reported that Arif Budi Situmeang was found guilty of wounding the two with his firearm. Situmeang was not charged over the boy's death. However, his eight-month sentence was three months longer than recommended.

The court heard that Situmeang fired shots during a protest at a police post in Paniai on January 20, following a brawl between residents and soldiers who refused to contribute money for the repair of a bridge.

Situmeang maintained his innocence, saying the two were wounded when he accidentally dropped his gun after a protester kicked him in the back, Kompas said. He has appealed.

The report did not say whether anyone else was facing charges.

Human rights activists have accused the Indonesian military of widespread human rights abuse in Papua, fuelling a sporadic, low-level separatist insurgency that has lasted decades.

An Australian charged with murdering a two-year-old boy who was killed by a bullet fired during an attack by a raskol gang in Port Moresby has won leave to a judicial review.

Rick Harvey Goodwin, 63, also had committal proceedings against him stayed by the judge, who ruled he had an arguable case that his rights had been breached during an inquest.

Goodwin, the general manager of a security company, was charged with murder after intervening in a raskol car hijacking attempt in the suburb of Koki.

[Agence France-Presse, Australian Associated Press.]