Four Indonesian special forces soldiers who killed a Papuan provincial leader while trying to silence his calls for independence were jailed for between 36 and 42 months.
"The defendants were proven guilty of jointly engaging in mistreatment that led to the death of Theys Hiyo Eluay," said Judge Colonel Yamini in a military court.
Independence activists from the easternmost province described the trial as a farce and said it failed to establish who gave the order to silence Eluay.
The killing in November 2001 inflamed separatist sentiment in Papua, where the military has long been accused of killing, torturing and raping civilians.
Lieutenant Colonel Hartomo and Private Achmad Zulfahmi were jailed for 42 months and discharged from the army. Captain Rionardo and First Sergeant Asrial were jailed for three years but not discharged.
Verdicts were to be passed later Monday on three other special forces soldiers from the Kopassus unit.
Eluay was killed while being driven home from a dinner hosted at the Kopassus headquarters in the provincial capital Jayapura. His body was found the following day, his face blackened from effects of suffocation and his tongue protruding.
One of those awaiting a verdict, Lieutenant Agus Supriyanto, has told the court that his superiors ordered him and Zulfahmi to pressure Eluay to stop promoting independence.
As they drove Eluay home from the dinner, Supriyanto said he and Zulfahmi tried to dissuade him from speaking out on the subject. But Eluay became upset and started shouting at them, prompting Zulfahmi to clamp his hand over Eluay's mouth, Supriyanto has said. Soldiers have said Eluay was weak but alive when they left him.
Prosecutors have said Hartomo "motivated other persons to conduct the mistreatment." Defence lawyers said they would appeal. They have described their clients as heroes who struggled to prevent Indonesia from breaking up. The soldiers could been been jailed for 15 years if found guilty of murder.
A low-level armed revolt has been waged in the resource-rich province since Jakarta took it over in 1963 from Dutch colonial rulers. Eluay headed the Papua Presidium Council, which campaigned peacefully for independence.
Tom Beanal, council vice-president, said he could not take the military court seriously. "The military killed him. How can they make the tribunal?" Beanal told AFP in Jakarta. "I reject this. I don't see any integrity to it." Beanal said the murder was a human rights violation and should be handled by an international tribunal.
Willy Mandowen, a presidium moderator, suggested that the soldiers themselves were scapegoats. "The motivation, why Theys was killed, who is responsible and who gave the order were questions not addressed in the military trial," he said.
Mandowen said authorities were "castrating the case" by bring it before a military tribunal when a crime against humanity was involved. "The process only sacrificed soldiers and the feeling of justice of the Papuan people."
Last week Amnesty International said it was investigating a report that troops had tortured villagers and torched homes during a hunt for rebels in Papua. Also last week a suspect died in army detention in Papua. A local rights activist said soldiers tied ropes around the victim's neck and paraded him through his home village the previous day.
Human Rights Watch called for an independent investigation into that death, which it said "will only increase the local climate of fear and intimidation."