Jakarta – The public prosecutor has demanded that six Papuan activists each be sentenced to one year and five months in jail. The prosecutor said that the six defendants had been proven to have violated Article 106 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) in conjunction with Article 55 Paragraph 1 of KUHP 1 on treason.
The six Papuan activists are Surya Anta, Charles Kossay, Dano Tabuni, Isay Wenda, Ambrosius Mulait and Arina Elopere.
"[The prosecutor] demanded that each of them be sentenced to one year and five months", said the defendants' lawyer Nelson Nikodemus Simamora in a press release received by CNN Indonesia on Friday evening, April 3.
Friday's hearing was held through teleconferencing. Nikodemus explained that the defendants took part in the teleconference trial from jail while the panel of judges, the public prosecutor and the defendants' lawyer were present in court.
Nikodemus took the opportunity to make a protest against the panel of judges who did not give him an opportunity to read out a written deposition by an expert witness as agreed to at the previous hearing.
The judges, he said, ruled that written depositions by expert witnesses would be read out during the hearing of the duplik – the defendant's response to the prosecutor's response to the defendant.
Nikodemus explained that the expert witness was unable to attend the hearing in person because of the corona virus epidemic (Covid-19).
"This clearly harmed the defendants' rights to employ and present witnesses or persons who have special expertise in order to provide testimony which benefits them as stipulated by Article 65 of the Criminal Procedural Code (KUHAP)", he asserted.
The next hearing is scheduled to hear the reading out of a defense speech by the defendants' lawyer on Monday April 13. "The reading out of expert testimonies from the defendants' lawyer will be allowed during the submission of the written duplik", he continued.
The six Papuan activists were declared suspects on August 30-31 last year on charges of makar (treason, subversion, rebellion) and indicted under Article 106 of the KUHP in conjunction with Article 55 Paragraph 1 of the KUHP 1 and Article 110 Paragraph 1 of the KUHP following a protest action in front of the State Palace on August 28.
The protest action took up the theme "Students Against Racism, Capitalism, Colonialism and Militarism Reject All Forms of Discrimination Against Papuan People", which was in response to racist slurs against Papuan students in the Central Java provincial capital of Surabaya on August 16. (ryn/agt)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Surya Anta Cs Dituntut Penjara 1 Tahun 5 Bulan Terkait Makar".]