Catharine Munro, Jakarta – Indonesian human rights prosecutors today raised the prospect of dropping charges against some defendants facing trial for gross human rights violations in East Timor in 1999.

Prosecutors have already sought minimum sentences for Dili's former governor Abilio Soares and for five officers stationed in the town of Suai, the scene of one of the worst massacres in East Timor in 1999.

But the cases of the most senior military officers among 18 defendants being tried for human rights abuses in Jakarta are yet to finish. The cases of Bali-based regional commander Adam Damiri and East Timor commander Tono Surtaman began this month.

"If we believe that they are not guilty then we will ask for their release," said prosecutor Darmono, referring in general to all of the remaining defendants.

All defendants have been charged with neglecting to prevent lethal attacks by the men under their command in the year of East Timor's vote for independence. The charge of neglect has already been criticised by international observers as being too weak.

Prosecutor Darmono, who goes by one name, confirmed he had yesterday sought sentences of 10 to 10-and-a-half years for five low level commanders in Suai. "They sacrificed a lot of themselves and their families" Darmono said.

The death sentence or life terms in jail were available to the prosecutors, he said.

In the case of Suai, prosecutors alleged the five men – four from the military and one from the police – had been negligent by failing to stop an attack on refugees sheltering in the grounds of a half-built cathedral in Suai on September 6, 1999.

Indonesian investigators later found the bodies of 26 victims of the Suai massacre just across the border but East Timor's human rights group Yaysan HAK claims between 50 and 200 people, including three priests, were killed.

The massacre occurred in the week of violent ransacking by militia, aided and abetted by the Indonesian military, that followed the vote for independence on August 30.

The prosecutor's application for minimum sentences came despite earlier evidence from an East Timorese witness Dominggas dos Santos Mouzinho that on the day of the attack she saw one defendant Lt Col Herman Sedyono in civilian clothing carrying a gun near the site of the attack.

Dos Santos also told the court another defendant, Lt Sugito, had entered the church.

Last week the former governor of capital Dili, Abilio Soares, also had a minimum of 10 and a half years sought by prosecutors.