Convicted UN staff killers get heavier sentences<\/p>\n
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court has increased the sentences of three men,
\nconvicted of killing three staff members of the UN High
\nCommissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in West Timor in September
\n2000, to between five and seven years, a far heavier verdict than
\nthat previously handed down by the North Jakarta District Court.<\/p>\n
East Timor pro-integration militiamen Xisto Pereira, Sarafin
\nXimenes, and Joao Martin were initially sentenced to between 10
\nmonths and 15 months by the district court last May.<\/p>\n
They were among six people convicted of conspiring to foment
\nthe violent rampage in Atambua that resulted in the brutal
\nkillings of the workers, and the damage of property belonging to
\nUNHCR.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court's verdict, issued on Nov. 15, was in line
\nwith the appeal sought by state prosecutors.<\/p>\n
Chief Justice Bagir Manan said on Friday that the panel of
\njudges multiplied the jail terms because "the defendants' actions
\nclearly led to the death of the UN staff."<\/p>\n
Pereira, 26, and Martin, 27, were given five years'
\nimprisonment, while Ximenes, 26, was sentenced to seven.<\/p>\n
"As the result of misconduct by the defendants, as well as the
\nensuing mob, the windows of the UNHCR office were damaged and
\nthree staff members of the UNHCR were killed ..." the justices
\nsaid in their ruling.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court, however, has yet to issue its verdict over
\nthe case involving three other militiamen -- Julius Naisama, Jose
\nFrancisco, and Joao Alvez da Cruz -- who have been sentenced to
\nbetween 16 months and 20 months for the lesser charge of
\nfomenting violence in Atambua, a West Timor border town.<\/p>\n
The three UN workers -- American (Puerto Rican) Carlos
\nCasaeres, Ethiopian Samson Aregahegn, and Peril Simundze, a
\nCroatian national -- were hacked to death and then burned.<\/p>\n
The murder sparked an international outcry and an exodus of
\ninternational aid workers from West Timor, leaving some 100,000
\nEast Timorese refugees in the hands of Indonesian authorities and
\nlocal aid workers.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the Supreme Court's verdict, lawyer Frans Hendra
\nWinarta said he doubted if the heavier sentence would give
\ninternational credibility to Indonesia's legal system.<\/p>\n
"I heard last month that the local East Timor court trying the
\nsame case sentenced the six militiamen to 30 years each. In the
\nU.S., such premeditated murder carries a life sentence -- and
\neven in our country, the crime can carry 10 years of jail term.<\/p>\n
"So this heavier verdict does nothing to improve our tarnished
\nhuman rights image before the international community," Frans
\ntold The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
He wondered aloud whether the Supreme Court had a hidden
\nagenda in disclosing the verdict to the public a full two months
\nafter it was handed down.<\/p>\n
Indonesian law does not require the court to reveal verdicts
\nin appeal cases to the public.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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