Jakarta – Independence leaders jailed on subversion charges in Indonesia's remote Irian Jaya province have vowed to reject any attempt by President Abdurrahman Wahid or police to release them from prison early, a lawyer for the detainees said Thursday.
"All five have made a commitment to stay in jail until the legal process is complete. They want to keep following the legal procedures," Anum Siregar, a member of the defence team, told AFP by phone from the capital Jayapura.
The detainees, all key figures on the 31-member pro-independence Papua Presidium, have been charged with subversion for advocating secession from Indonesia.
Presidium chairman Theys Eluay, secretary-general Thaha Al Hamid, and members Don Flassy and John Mambor, were arrested in the two days preceding the December 1 anniversary of an unrecognised declaration of independence. A fifth member, Reverend Herman Awom, was arrested on December 4.
Wahid, who will visit Irian Jaya on Christmas Day, has twice said he wants Eluay and colleagues released, according to two Irian Jaya community leaders who have met separately with him.
Police were also considering releasing the presidium members on humanitarian grounds in time for Christmas, national police spokesman Brigadier General Saleh Saaf said Wednesday.
Siregar however said the five would reject any release order based on either humanitarian or political reasons. "Firstly, they will not accept humanitarian-motivated release, nor will they accept release as a political move by Gus Dur," she said, using Wahid's nickname.
Siregar said it was expected that the president would again push for their release during his Christmas visit. "But they don't want to get out of jail as a result of political moves, even if it's from Gus Dur."
State prosecutors earlier this week extended the presidium leaders' detention by another 40 days, rejecting dossiers compiled by police detectives on the detainees, branding them incomplete and demanding more thorough investigation.
Thaha Al Hamid said the prosecutors deemed the evidence police had handed to them "unusable." "It is utterly clear that until today the police have come up with no acceptable evidence," he told AFP by mobile phone from his police cell.
Independence supporters in Irian Jaya, known locally as West Papua, maintain they were robbed of their sovereignty, declared on December 1 1961, after Indonesian troops began entering in 1962.
Indonesian sovereignty was formalised in 1969 through a limited UN-held vote, which separatists dispute as flawed and unrepresentative.