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Heavy
Sentences For Convicted UN Staff Killers In West Timor
By IOL correspondent in South Asia Kazi Mahmood
Jakarta, Jan. 20 (IslamOnline) - The
Supreme Court in Indonesia has increased the sentences of three men convicted of
killing three staff members of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in
West Timor in September 2000.
Their sentences have been increased to between five
and seven years, a far heavier verdict than that previously handed down by the
North Jakarta District Court.
East Timor pro-integration militiamen Xisto Pereira,
Sarafin Ximenes, and Joao Martin were initially sentenced to between 10 months
and 15 months by the district court last May.
They were among six people convicted of conspiring
to foment the violent rampage in Atambua that resulted in the brutal killings of
the workers, and the damage of property belonging to UNHCR.
Chief Justice, Bagir Manan, said Friday that the
panel of judges multiplied the jail terms because "the defendants' actions
clearly led to the death of the UN staff."
Pereira, 26, and Martin, 27, were given five
years’ imprisonment, while Ximenes, 26 was sentenced to seven years.
The three UN workers -- American (Puerto Rican)
Carlos Casaeres, Ethiopian Samson Aregahegn, and Peril Simundze, a Croatian
national -- were hacked to death and then burned.
The murder sparked an international outcry and an
exodus of international aid workers from West Timor, leaving some 100,000 East
Timorese refugees in the hands of Indonesian authorities and local aid workers.
Speaking about the Supreme Court's verdict, lawyer
Frans Hendra Winarta said he doubted if the heavier sentence would give
international credibility to Indonesia's legal system.
"I heard last month that the local East Timor
court trying the same case sentenced the six militiamen to 30 years each. In the
U.S., such premeditated murder carries a life sentence – and even in our
country, the crime can carry 10 years of jail term.
"So this heavier verdict does nothing to improve
our tarnished human rights image before the international community," Frans
told The Jakarta Post.
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