Banda Aceh – Three military witnesses on Saturday told a court trying 24 soldiers charged with massacring 58 civilians in Aceh province last year that an officer, now declared missing, had ordered the killing of 23 people wounded in a shooting spree there.

Second Sergeant Subur told the joint civilian and military court here that 23 people wounded during the shooting of Teungku Bantaqiah, a Muslim leader, and 57 of his followers in West Aceh last year were taken away by a military truck.

He said the 23 were to initially be taken to Takengon, the capital of central Aceh, for medical treatment. But after several kilometers, Lieutenant Colonel Sujono ordered one of the defendants, First Lieutenant Trijoko, to take six of the wounded out of the truck and kill them.

Subur said none of the wounded ever got to Takengon as all of them were killed along the way. Two other witnesses gave the same account to the court.

Sujono, who heads the intelligence department of a military command overseeing several Aceh districts but not West Aceh, has been missing since November and has since been declared a military deserter.

Attorney General Marzuki Darusman was quoted by the Suara Pembaruan daily as saying he had a report Suyono was seen, accompanied by soldiers, leaving Jakarta's Sukarno Hatta airport in a car on April 23. Darusman believed there might be some conspiracy to prevent Sujono from facing the court but he could not say who was behind the scheme.

Lieutenant Surya testified he was informed by a follower of Bantaqiah caught by the military that the group had 100 firearms and 100 followers.

Another witness, First Lieutenant Indarjo said he was tasked to block the area during the operation and from a distance of 10 kilometers he heard gunfire.

But Surya said he was not involved in the raid on the Bantaqiah Muslim boarding school. The trial resumes on Monday.