Jakarta – A military prosecutor on Tuesday asked for jail sentences of between 15 to 26 months for eleven soldiers on trial for abducting pro-democracy activists in the last months of the Suharto regime.

Military prosecutor Colonel Harom Wijaya, in his call for the sentences said the defendants, from the elite Kopassus special forces, had been guilty of "collective deprivation of the right to freedom."

The prosecutor sought a 26-month jail term and dismissal from the military for three of the defendants, Major Bambang Kristiono, Captains Multhazar (eds: one name) Yulius Selfanus and Untung Budiharto.

He said Captains Nugroho Sulistio, Dadang Indrayuda, Jaka Budi, and Fauka Noor Farid should be sentenced to 22 months in jail and dismissed from the military.

For the remaining three, Master Sergeant Sunaryo, and Sergeants Sigit and Sukadi, he called for 15-month sentences. But he failed to mention whether he was also asking for their dismissal from the armed forces.

The jail terms of all 11, who were arrested in September, should be reduced by the time they had already spent under detention, Wijaya said.

The military court, which has yet to rule on whether the nine are guilty or not, will reconvene Tuesday to hear the defendants' defence plea.

One of the defendants, Major Kristiono, told the court at a previous session that he had set up a team of soldiers on his own initiative to abduct nine pro-democracy activists.

He said the mission of the "Rose Team" was to investigate "radical groups" allegedly seeking to disrupt a meeting of the country's highest legislative assembly in March 1998 which was to re-elect Suharto.

The assembly returned Suharto to the presidency for a seventh consecutive five-year term, but the ageing strongman resigned amid mounting public pressure and unrest two months later.

Kristiono said, however, the team's activities were reported to his superior, then Group Commander Colonel Khairawan of the Kopassus, then headed by Suharto's son-in-law Prabowo Subianto.

A total of 23 activists were kidnapped, of which nine have resurfaced, 13 are still missing and one was found dead.

Some of the nine who resurfaced have spoken of being kept for weeks in solitary confinement and being tortured.

Human rights groups have already called for a halt to the court martial, charging that its only purpose was to cover up for the involvement of the military top brass in the abductions.

Press reports in August said that Suharto's son-in-law, Prabowo, had admitted during a two-week investigation by the military's Officers Honorary Council that he had ordered the kidnappings.

The officers' council discharged Prabowo and two other senior officers for their role in the abduction and torture of activists.