Ary Hermawan, Jakarta – One of three militants charged with beheading three Christian schoolgirls last year in Poso carried out the attack as an "Idul Fitri gift" for Muslims, a Jakarta court heard Wednesday.
Reading out the indictment, prosecutors at the Central Jakarta District Court accused Hasanuddin alias Hasan of instigating the attack to avenge the slaying of Muslims during the sectarian conflict in the Central Sulawesi province between 1998 and 2002.
Hasan was charged under the antiterrorism law and could be sentenced to death if found guilty. "The defendant planned or provoked others to commit violent acts aimed to incite terror," prosecutor Payaman said.
Payaman said prosecutors had evidence Hasan had plotted the attacks with two accomplices in a Gebang Rejo library in 2005. During the meeting, Hasan had told them he used to attack security posts and kill soldiers as an "Idul Fitri gift" to Muslims when he trained with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the Philippines.
Hasan had allegedly told his accomplices: "We had better find Kongkoli (Christians) as an Idul Fitri gift (this year). Go look around (to find targets)," Payaman said. Hasan was silent during the proceedings.
He along with fellow suspects Lilik Purnomo and Irwanto Irano and another six militants currently on the run, allegedly beheaded the three girls as they walked to school along an isolated jungle track leading to Poso. Another girl was also slashed in the cheek, but managed to escape.
Lilik and Purwanto were due to be indicted Wednesday but their trials were delayed until next week.
The defendant was quoted by prosecutors as saying that killing children and women was "actually prohibited by sharia (law) but it was allowed to avenge what they (the Christians) have done to us." A handwritten note found with the girls' heads said the attackers "still need another 100 heads. Blood for blood, a life for a life, and a head for a head."
Defense lawyer Achmad Michdan demanded the judges delay the trial because prosecutors had not given copies of the indictment to the defense team three days before the session, as legally required. "We even didn't know the trial had started today," Achmad said.
Presiding judge Binsar Siregar dismissed the demand, saying the defendant had admitted to having already received a copy of the indictment on Nov. 3. Prosecutors did not know that Achmad was acting as the lawyer for Hasan, Binsar said. The trial was adjourned until Nov. 15 when the defendant will enter his plea.
Three Catholic militants were executed in September for instigating a deadly attack on a Muslim village in Palu in 2000, killing from between 60 and 190 people.
Tensions in the two regions have risen recently with the shooting of a Christian minister and the killing of a Muslim man by an angry mob.
The police are hunting 29 suspected Muslim militants believed to be responsible for a series of murders and bomb attacks on Christians in Poso and Palu since 2002.