Nivell Rayda & Fidelis E. Satriastanti, Manado – A district court on Friday sentenced two activists from the country's leading environmental watchdog to one month in prison each for having staged a rival forum parallel to this week's World Ocean Conference and Coral Triangle Initiative in the capital of North Sulawesi.

But the Manado court also ordered police to release the two activists, who have been detained since Monday. There is no need for the two to serve their jail terms," the judges said in their ruling.

The court found Berry Nahdian Furqon, the executive director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), and another of the organization's members, Erwin Usman, guilty of having disrupted the conference by holding an "illegal meeting" to discuss fisheries and fishermen's welfare in a tent opposite the hotel where the WOC opened on Monday.

The meeting, titled the "International Forum on Marine and Fisheries Justice," was hosted by Walhi and four other environmental groups  the Fisheries Justice Coalition (Kiara), the Network for Mining Advocacy (Jatam), the Indonesian Green Institute and the Alliance of People Against Mine Waste (Ammalta).

Despite their release, the defendants immediately lodged an appeal. "It is not about the sentence. We are not guilty," Erwin said. "Indonesia's freedom of speech is what is at stake with our conviction."

Erwin said that the Walhi forum, which was supposed to run from May 10 to 16, had fulfilled all the administrative requirements of the local authorities and the National Police.

Decroli Poluan, a legal representative for the activists, said his clients had only held a meeting of fishermen and had not staged any protests. "The police withdrew the forum's permit, but without my clients' knowledge," he said.

There was also no reason for the police to withdraw the permit. We were not disrupting the conference. The forum was staged because there are no sessions at the WOC for traditional fishermen to speak out."

Police broke up the forum and also arrested 16 Filipino activists taking part in the event. Immigration authorities sent the 16 back home the next day.

The WOC, attended by representatives from more than 70 countries and 11 international organizations, was aimed at putting oceans and coastal areas on the global climate change agenda.